Keep the Unhallowed in Halloween

Some of you might remember my post about keeping Christ in Christmas, but this year I am championing the cause of another holiday, one that some may not even consider a holiday: Halloween. While it may mean All Hallow's Eve, it's more sinister, pagan roots tend to shine through in practice. Now, "holiday," literally means "holy day," which it is in the church, but in the secular world, it exists as more of an unholiday, and that is what I am here to defend.

I was in Lowe's the other day, looking for some hardware, and I noticed that even though it was October 11, they already had their Christmas ornaments on sale en masse. October 11th. I haven't even begun to construct my costume for this year, and those of you that know me know how important my costume is. I cannot allow that while I was in the outdoor, garden area, a midi version "Joy to the World" was plinking over the p.a. system before the leaves had even changed, much less fallen to the earth. Don't get me wrong, a cold, crisp December night driving through the light-stranded suburbs of New Jersey to a good production of "Silent Night" still has the power to make me weep, but before that kind of warm-hearted grace can wash over me in a wave of goodness, I need some evil.

I need my day of death--all souls day. What better way to take the macabre and celebrate our moribund existence bedizened in palor and gore? It's like a New Orlean's funeral. That's a town that knows how to do things. Take Mardi Gras for instance; before the ascetic practices of Lent, everyone indulges themselves in a hedonistic, gluttonous orgy of T and Alcohol before forty days of self deprivation and eating fish (probably just lots of crawfish--and pork), but I'm sure some people do it by the book. My point is: what better way to harken the season of the birth of our savior than by accenting our damnable nature in nefarious garb. As much as we spend the rest of the year posturing like upstanding, moral members of the human race instead of descendants of Cain, we should dig deep into the heart of darkness and bellow; and before we deck the halls with boughs of holly, we should deck ourselves in the trappings and suits of the unholy so that by the time "O Holy Night" comes on in the grocery, I am penitent ready to embrace my fellow man, even if he is holding up the checkout line. Happy Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeen!