Happy Halloween: Thoughts on Monsters, the Dead, and Other Things that Go Bump in the Night

Posted on 10.31.2012

As regular readers know, I've written a variety of Halloween-themed meditations over the years. Some of these reflections have been about monsters. Many have been about the existential aspects of Halloween. In fact, many of these reflections made their way into Unclean, where I talk about monsters in Part 2 and about how mortality fears fuel body ambivalence in Part 3 (which, I think, is a lot of what is going on in Halloween).

Have a blessed and Happy Halloween. A collection of posts for the day:

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6 thoughts on “Happy Halloween: Thoughts on Monsters, the Dead, and Other Things that Go Bump in the Night”

  3. I'm working my way through Unclean now and thought about this section as I just read it recently. It was insightful in a scary way, since I didn't realize how much it affects all of us.

    Happy Halloween to you and your family! Time to do some more reading. I'm not sure I've read all of your articles yet. 8^D

    Do we get to know what your costume is this year?

  4. Sadly, my love of Halloween is more philosophical than sartorial. I'm simply the dad in normal clothing standing on the sidewalk as my kids go up to ring the doorbell.

    Though given my new penchant for overalls I might don a cowboy hat and go as a farmer. I sported this look at one of my son's football games and took a good bit of ribbing. But as I say to all my friends, "To hell with you. I'm wearing what I want to wear."

  6. Face it, our society sucks. We will take the occasion to indulge in food-like substances (candy) and go around in costume, but how many of us even acknowledge the parallel occasion of "All Saints Day?" Because of course, a commercial-oriented secular society has no use for saints or their example.

    Many Christian churches participate in the festivities, proving that they are glorified social clubs, nothing more. If they were refuges from the world, they wouldn't blindly embrace everything in the culture (barring sexuality). They'd be an exception to it. This is one thing I like about Catholicism more. It has a tradition that resists the shock of the new.

    Don't get me wrong, I love me some goth music. And I like that Halloween is an outlet for freaks, "little monsters", and even for dropping obscure references, if only for a day. But like every other holiday that Americans actually give two s***ts about, it's mainly about fun, consumption, and stuffing your face. The philosophy behind our holidays is at best a justification and at
    worst an illusory cover for why people actually participate. Independence Day was really just fireworks and barbecue day. There were two Easters, and the bunny-and-eggs version featured in stores, schools, and TV marathons has little if anything to do with Christ's resurrection. Thanksgiving will really just be gluttony and football day. Then the orgy of consumption climaxes at X-mas, the one holiday to rule them all.

    One last bit of food for thought:

    "Jesus said, 'I rose up within the world and I appeared outwardly to them in the flesh. I found them all drunk and I found none of them thirsty, and my soul was pained for the sons of men, for they are blind in their hearts and do not look outwards. For they came into the world empty, and seek also to leave the world empty. But now they are drunk. When they shake off their wine their hearts will change.'"

    --Gospel of Thomas, saying 28

    Let's hope this age of falsehood ends soon.

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