“Celebrating Christmas and Halloween today is now an exercise in bad taste.”
Oh, the Halloween.
‘tis the time between 31 and 2 when we all gather around to remember ghosts. Children would roam around the streets with their costumes bright and wryly, like pouring something red on newly-bleached white sheets or anything from Disney movies, to ask for some treats.
Skeletons and clippings of haunted souls are also being hung around in their homes. Ideally, people would blast their speakers to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” setting up further the mood for the week-long season.
But Halloween, to some, is highly discouraged among some cultures and faiths. Roman Catholics, for one, are advised instead to say a prayer for the dead in front of their graves. Born-again evangelicals are more stringent in going against this practice as it is rooted in pagan traditions. In looking into their lens, their condemnation of this holiday is justified.
Celebrating the day of the dead must give us the opportunity to mourn on a lot of things. This week must allow us to show remorse on our dying spirit as a country; how we read and see our politics, as well as how we glorify our flawlessly flailing standards we see in our leaders. Surely, this is also why we need to reflect on finding our way in this season of “darkness.”
I have wept so much at how our society tends to be so forgiving in opinions that excuse the sins of the powerful. I am angry, too, at how politics has allowed us to be fooled by the bureaucracy-laden “promises” and “assurances” that have now moved beyond reproach. But I have consumed so much grief that I have grown myself into apathy, to a point where I no longer get to trust the systems we have.
But with death, comes joy. Joy in the person of what some would call “Santa Claus.”
Unfortunately, now is not the right time to hang your December decorations. The lights, the canes, the images of sleigh rides with reindeers in snow aren’t the ones that ought to be seen now. It’s common sense that tells us that we are a mile away waiting for Christmas to arrive.
It actually feels odd to see Santa Claus on display while the souls of the dead are being grieved upon. It gives us the strangest encouragement to embrace light and darkness, both equal in weight, in the pursuit of creating our own amnesia of these separate celebrations. It’s numbing, if you ask me. Oh wait, change that. Celebrating Christmas and Halloween today is now an exercise in bad taste.
I literally abhor how we tend to normalize September as the start of our Christmas here. I really don’t get the 100-day euphoria of having to anticipate in remembering Christ’s birth. The gift of His must be done in the season of light. In Catholic practice, this must be accompanied with a moment of waiting in advent. Christmas could begin in December, or any date after Nov. 2, to restore the momentum of decorating houses with anything that would spark in the season of giving and joy.
We are literally creating our own dogshow. Seriously, we are making a mockery by seeing children do their “trick-or-treat” while Christmas songs are being played. This has kept us mentally exhausted from this form of waiting. It’s too much to see Santa and the ghost in one place. And probably splurge on these occasions.
Maybe this is what we need to reflect on for the New Year. Businesses could, perhaps, rework their calendars to accommodate Christmas and Halloween into two, distinct festivities. And surely, we can turn off our “All I want for Christmas in our Hearts” in favor of, well, something else on Sept. 1.
But while we’re at it, let’s sing some Christmas carols in front of our dead relatives on the grave. That will keep them happy, I hope, in line with our ever-glorious, commercialized tradition.
(Th writer is a 20-something year-old who floats around between writing and keeping himself company inside his room. For comments, you may send them at ngrolando2003@yahoo.com.)
