A priest at a church I attend told me this story, and I’m passing it along with the details changed just enough to protect the innocent, although I think we both know that nobody is innocent.
asserted
nobody → attend → innocent
It happened last week, before evening prayer, which is one of the small services Episcopalians call, with our unflagging love of off-putting fancy language, the Daily Office.
asserted
Episcopalians → happen → language
It’s the kind of service that usually draws a congregation you could count on one hand, assuming the hand belonged to someone careless with power tools.
uncertain
hand → ’ → tools
But you never know.
asserted
you → know → ?
Sometimes people feel a call and walk in for the first time.
asserted
people → feel → time
That’s what happened to my friend last week.
asserted
what → ’ → friend
A woman came in early, and while she waited, she drifted over to the church bulletin board, which is the same in every Episcopal church: a dense mosaic of casserole sign-ups, choir rehearsals, and reminders about the need for stewardship, which is another unnecessarily oblique way we remind you that we need your money to keep this thing going.
asserted
we → come → thing
And there, pinned between the Flower Guild and the food pantry, was a flyer for the children’s Halloween parade.
asserted
flyer → pin → parade
“Isn’t that,” she asked the priest, lowering her voice the way people do when they don’t want God to overhear, “a little, I don’t know, satanic?”
asserted
I → ask → voice
Here’s the answer the priest gave: Halloween is short for All Hallows’ Eve, the night before All Saints’ Day on Nov. 1, which is followed by All Souls’ Day on the 2nd.
asserted
which → ’ → 2nd
That’s a three-day block on the church calendar given over entirely to dead people: first the famously dead — the saints — and then the rest of the normal dead.
asserted
That → ’ → dead
From the start, Christians have treated death with something close to contempt.
asserted
Christians → treat → contempt
St. Paul taunts it outright (“O death, where is thy sting?”) and medieval painters show skeletons dancing with popes and kings.
asserted
painters → taunt → popes
Martin Luther advised that when scripture won’t drive off the devil, you should jeer at him because the one thing he can’t bear is scorn.
asserted
he → advise → him
That’s what the costumes and the candy are for.
asserted
costumes → ’ → what
It’s joy, and it’s unauthorized.
asserted
it → ’ → ?
Death never signed off on it, and he doesn’t have to.
asserted
he → sign → it
We were cleared by something bigger.
asserted
We → clear → something
The newcomer took this all in with a skeptical look.
asserted
newcomer → take → look
She seemed unconvinced.
asserted
She → seem → ?
Despite the theological overlay — sort of a Christian doctrine Instagram filter — Halloween feels pretty pagan.
asserted
Halloween → feel → filter
But there’s a Mexican folk tale that might help — or, at least, I think it’s a folk tale.
uncertain
it → ’ → ?
It might just be something I imagined I heard one time.
uncertain
I → imagine → ?
It’s the Day of the Dead in a small Mexican village.
asserted
It → ’ → village
The Diá de Muertos is celebrated across the two key feast days, All Saints’ and All Souls’, and is probably the top layer of a holiday that goes way, way back, before the first Christian missionaries arrived in the New World and brought the message of peace and universal Christian brotherhood.
asserted
missionaries → celebrate → peace
So everyone in the village is partying in the square: there’s a band, lots of food, children with painted skull faces, old women who’ve seen 80 of these and still get up to dance.
asserted
who → party → these
Staggering through the middle of it is the town drunk, dressed as Death himself in a black cloak, with a cardboard scythe and a skull mask slightly askew.
asserted
drunk → stagger → scythe
He lurches around, swings the scythe at the mayor, and collapses theatrically into the laps of grandmothers.
asserted
He → lurch → grandmothers
The village roars.
asserted
village → roar → ?
But then, out of nowhere, Death appears.
asserted
Death → appear → ?
And he is not amused by all of this unauthorized joy.
asserted
he → amuse → joy
Death, as you might expect, has no sense of humor.
uncertain
you → expect → humor
He stands at the edge of the square, glowering and insulted.
asserted
He → stand → square
The music stops.
asserted
music → stop → ?
The laughter dies.
asserted
laughter → die → ?
Mothers pull their children close, and the village goes silent.
asserted
village → pull → children
“Go ahead,” Death says bitterly.
asserted
Death → go → ?
But every one of you is going to meet me.
asserted
one → go → me
I know the hour and the minute and the day, and you do not.
asserted
you → know → hour
So the joke’s on you.”
asserted
joke → ’ → you
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
