halloween-what is it?

8/13/2019 HALLOWEEN-what is it?

1/7

Hallo\ryeenOrthodoxy and Secular Cultureby Father John MosesA talk given at the 2004 Southern Missions Conference held at the St. John of Shanghai & San FranciscoRussian Orthodox Chopel (ROCOR) in Mobile,Alabamo" USA.

On the evening before October 19 (Noy. 2), 1964,the Russian Church Abroad celebrated the solemn can-onaation of Father John of Kronstadt, whom VladykaJohn Maximovitch loved. Vladyka had even been in-volved in compiling of the service and akathist to him.A group of Russians organized on this night aHalloween Ball. When the All Night Vigil celebrated toSt. John of Kronstadt began, many people were absent,to the great sorrow of Vladyka. After the service, St.John went to the place where the ball was being held.He entered the hall and the music stopped as Vladyka,in absolute silence, glared at the people, and with hisstaff in hand, he slowly walked around the entire hall.He didn't speak, but the sight of Vladyka brought gen-eral consternation to the party . Vladyka left but the nextday in church he called all to the devout Christian life.In some ways, talking to an Orthodox goupabout Halloween is like what we use to call "preachingto the choir." In other words, non-participation in Hal-loween should be a "no-brainer." Yet, I believe thattheissue of Halloween is an example of a more fundamen-tal struggle between Orthodoxy and the secular spirit ofour age. What I hope to accomplish in this speech is forus to begin to understand the cause and the nafure ofthis struggle and begin to gain some idea of how to dealwith it.

HalloweenFirst, on the slim chance that some of you are un-familiar with its origin, I will present some basic factsabout Halloween. Fr. Victor Potapov relates this his-tory: "The feast of Halloween began among the Celticpeoples of Britain, Ireland, and northern France. Thesepagan peoples believed that physical life was born from lnnocence betrayed?


2/7

2death. Therefore, they celebrated the beginning of the"new year" in the fall (on the eve of October 31 and intothe day of November 1), when they believed, the seasonofcold, darkness, decay and death began. The Celts be-lieved that a certain deity, whom they called Samhain,[pronounced - sow-in] was the Lord of Death. To himthey gave honour at their New Year's festival(N.8. Sadly Father Victor's explanation of theorigins of Samhain, which is widely believed by mctnyconsemative Christian groups, is flawed. Samhain ISNOT the name of a Celtic god but rather the name ofthe day heralding the beginning of the northern winterand the Celtic new yeor. This confusion however doesnot negate in any way opposition to celebrating Hal-loween as the pagqn Celtic spiritual practices cele-brated on this day, however diluted or sanitisedfor con-temporary public consumption, are in total contradic-tion to Orthodox Christian belief. Please read theboxed article opposite - Ed.)Many beliefs and practices were associated withthis feast, which have endured to this current time. Onthe eve of the New Year's festival, the Druids, whowere the priests of the Celtic cult, inskucted their peo-ple to extinguish all hearttr fires and lights. On the eve-ning of the festival ttrey ignited a huge bonfire builtfrom oak branches, which they believed to be sacred.Upon this fire, they offered burnt sacrifices of crops,animals, and even human beings to appease and cajoleSamhain, the lord of Death. They also believed thatSamhain, being pleased by their faithful offerings, al-lowed the souls of the dead to return to homes for a fes-tal visit on this day. This belief led to the ritual practiceof wandering about in the dark dressed in costumes in-dicating ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, fairies and de-mons. The living entered into fellowship and commun-ion with their dead by this ritual act of imitation,through costume and the wandering about in the dark-ness, even as the souls of the dead were believed towander.The dialogue of "trick or heat" is integral to Hal-loween beliefs and practices. The souls of the deadhad - by Celtic trad-ition*-. ilter-d into the world ofdarkness, decay, and death. They bore the affliction ofgreat hunger on their festal visit. This belief broughtabout the practice of begging as another Celtic ritualimitation of the dead. The implication was that anysouls of the dead and their imitators who are not ap-peased with "treats", i.e. offerings, will provoke thewrath of Samhain, whose angels and servants (the soulsand human imitators) could retaliate through a systemof "tricks" or curses. One radio commentator takes greatfun in calling Halloweeh, "Begoween.o'The sacred fire was the fire of the New Year wastaken home to rekindle lights and hearth fires. This de-veloped into the practice of the Jack O Lantern (in theU.S.A.; a pumpkin, in older days other vegetables wereused), which was carved in imitation of the dead andused to convey the new light and fire to the home,where the lantern was left burning throughout the night.Divination was also part of this ancient Celticfestival. After the fire had died out the Druids examinedthe remains of the main sacrifices, hoping to foretell the

F

The VoiceSamhain, contrary to what some believe, is not a Celtic god of thedead. lnstead, it is a Celtic word meaning 'summe/s end.' The Celts, likemany other cultures, saw the dark of the day or year as the beginning.Thus their days began at sunset and the winter half of the year, starting onNovember 1st, was the beginning of their new year, just as it is now formany Wiccans or Pagans. The Celts were a pastoral people as opposed toan agricultural people. The end of summer was significant to them becauseit meant the time of year when the structure of their lives changed radically.The caftle were brought down from the summer pastures in the hills andthe people were gathered into the houses for the long winter nights of storytelling and handicrafts. ln the Druidic calendar, this was the time whenbaniers between man and the supernatural were lowered. Fires were lit tohonour the descending sun god. On the eve of Samhain, the gates of theAbyss were unlocked and spirits from below flew free. Human souls thathad been trapped in the bodies of animals were released by the Lord of theDead and sent to their new incamationsSamhaimvqs lle winler srason rrf fhe ,neient Celts-The c.Flts dividedthe year Info four quarters: Samhain (winter), lmbolc (spring), Beltane(summe$, and Lughnasadh (autumn). The Celtic year began in November,with Samhain. The Celts wele influenced principally by the lunar and stellar

cycles wtilch govemed the agricultural year - beginning and ending in au-tumn when the crops have been harvested and the soil is prepared for thewinter. Pronunciation differs radically between different groups of Celticlanguage speakers.

Samhain Eve, in Erse, Oidhche Shamhna, is one of the principal festi-vals of the Celtic calendar, and is thought to fall on or around the 31st ofOctober. lt represents the final harvest. ln modern lreland, the name bywhich Halloween is known in the lrish language is still Oictre Sharnhna.Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. Villagers cast the bonesof the slaughtered caftle upon the flames. (the word bonfire is thought toderive from these'bone fires.") With the bonfire ablaze, the villagers extin-guished all olher fires. Each family then solemnly lit their hearth from thecommon flame, thus bonding the families of the village together.Like most Celtic festivals, it was celebrated on a number of levels.Mateilally speaking it was the time of gathering food for the long wintermonths ahead, bdnging people and their livestock in to their winter quar-ters. To be alone and missing at this dangerous time was to expose your-self and your spirit to the perils of imminent winter. ln present times theimportance of this part of the festival has diminished for most people. Fromthe point of view of a tribal people for whom a bad season meant facing along winter of famine in which many would not survive to the spdng, it wasparamount.

Samhain was also a time for contemplation. Death was never very faraway, yet to die was not the tragedy it is in modern times. Of signal impor-tanceito the Celts people was io die with honour and to live in the memoryof thd tribe and be honoured at the greal feast (in lreland this would havebeen the Fleadh nan Maihh (Fea$. of the Dead)) wtrich took place onSamhain Eve.

_ Thig was llg_nqst rnagroal tirne of the year; Samhain was the daywhich did not exist. During the night the great shield of Skathach was low-ered, allowing the baniers between the worlds to fade and the lorces ofchaos to invade the realms of order, the material world conjoining with theworld of the dead. At this time the spirits of the dead and those yet to bebom walked amongst the living. The dead could return to the places wherethey had lived and food and entertainment were provided in their honour. lnthis way the tribes were at one with its past, pre$ent and future, This as-pect of the festival was never totally subdued by Christianity.

On the level of cosmic event, the rising of Pleiades, the northem winterstars, heralded the supremacy of night over day, the dark hatf ruled by therealms of the moon.ln the three days preceding the Samhain month the Sun God, Lugh,maimed at Lughnassadh, dies by the hand of his Tanist (his other self), theLord of Misrule. Lugh traverses the boundaries of the worlds on the firstday of Samhain. His Tanist is a miser and though he shines brightly in thewinter skies he gives no warmth. and does not temper the breath of theCrone, Cailleach Bheare, the north wind. ln this may be discemed the age-less battle between the light and dark and the cyclic nature of life and theseasons.

ln parts of western Brittany Samhain is still leralded by the baking ofkomigou. Kornigou are cakes baked in the shape of antlers to commemerate the god of winter shedding his "cuckold" horns as he returns to hiskingdom in the Otherworld. When the Romans made contact with theCelts, they added their feast of the dead to Samhain.


3/7

Vol. 5 No. 2 October 2005coming year's events. The Halloween festival was theproper night for sorcery, fortune telling, divination,games of chance, and Satan worship and witchcraft inthe later Middle Ages."

The Church responds"In the strictly orthodox early Celtic Church, theholy Fathers tried to counteract this pagan new year fes-tival that honoured the Lord of Death, by establishingthe Feast of All Saints on the same day. (It differs in theEast, where the Feast of All Saints is celebrated on theSunday followirg Pentecost). The custom of the CelticChurch was for the faithful Christians to attend a vigilservice and a morning celebration of the Holy Eucha-rist. This custom created the term Halloween. The OldEnglish of "All Hallow E'en", i.e., the eve commemo-rating all those who were hallowed (sanctified) becameHalloween.The remaining pagan and therefore anti-Christianpeople, whosepaganism had be-come deeply in-tertwined withthe Occult, Satan-ism and Magic,reacted to theChurch's affemptto supplant theirfestival by in-creased fervouron this evening.

The early medie-val Halloweenbecame the su-preme feast of theOccult, a nightand day witch-craft., demonism,sorcery and Sa-tanism of allkinds. Manypractic e s in-volved desecra-tion and mockery of Christian practices and beliefs.Costumes of skeletons developed as a mockery of theChurch's reverence for Holy Relics; Holy things werestolen, such as crosses and the Reserved Sacrament, arrdused peryersely in sacrilegious ways. The practice ofbegging became a system of persecution to harassChristians who were, by their beliofr, unable to partici-pate with offerings to those who served the Lord ofDeath. The Western Church's attempt failed, to supplantthis pagan festival with the Feast of All Saints."

Russian Counterpart"The ancient Slavic counterpart to Halloween inancient Russia was Navy Dien' (Old Slavonic for thedead "nav'), which was also called Radunitsa and cele-brated in the spring. To supplant it, the Eastern Churchattached this feast to Easter, for celebration on Tuesdayof Saint Thomas' Week (second week after Easter). TheChurch also changed the name of the feast into Ra-

3

donitsa, from Russian "radost" - joy, of Easter and ofthe resurrection from the dead of the whole manhood ofJesus Christ. Gradually Radunitsa yielded to Easter'sgreater importance and became less popular. And manydark practices from old Russian pagan feasts (Semik,Kupalo, Rusalia and some aspects of the Maslennitsa)still survived till the beginning of our century. Nowthey are gone, but the atheist authorities used to try toreanimate them. Another "harmless" feast - May 1, pro-claimed "the international worker's day" is a simple re-naming the old satanic feast of Walpurgis Night (nightof April 30 into the day of May 1), the yearly demonicSabbath during which all participants united in "a fel-lowship of Satar"."

The Modern Contextwhen we try to protest to our neighbours, ourschools, and even mmy of our own Orthodox brethrenabout the origin of Halloween, we usually get indiffer-ence and hurnour.Most who ob-serve Halloweenlaugh at any sug-gestion that theyare participatingin evil, or hon-ouring Samhain,or entertainingdead spirits.As an example,let me quote froman article"Hallowing Hal-loween-WhyChristians shouldembrace the"devilish" holidaywith gusto-andlaughter. " byAnderson M.Rearick III. Afterridiculing variousstatements of fel-low church members about the evils of Halloween, hewrites, "l have always considered Halloween a day tocelebrate the imagination, to become for a short timesomething wonderful and strange, smelling of greasepaint, to taste sweets that are permissible only once ayear. How wonderfirl to be with other children dressedup as what they might grow up to be, what they wishedthey could be, or even what they secretly feared. All ofus, dreams and nightmares, were brought together onequal footing, going from door to door to be given treatsand admired for our creativity. How delightful to go toparties with doughnuts, apples, brown cider, and pump-kin cakes-and to hear spine-tingling ghost stories and

feel our hearts skip a beat when the teller grabbed forus." Dr. Rearick concludes with the idea that weshouldn't abandon Halloween to the dark side of satan-ists and Wiccans. We should "reclaim the season" justas we did with Christmas. Therefore Halloween can be

ffi i ] .7: ::::::::::t:-l"j,i::*".* + .:& 'ri:i:i::::i::- j : j i : : 'f:,.-'.# '+ ,, ::&:ii, '1. , .d ,,,.i:ii.,,,.. iS :-:,, ":':': ,il re li ,&,* ,it o ,".,+ii' il irilrl . ,, ::t i+i:

': . j ii;' :::::lre:: : ir:::: l,,i#., ii 'a:1i:$ ,:.. ,],ilsi':l :.,i.i&,:i: :,:i: .F+iii+1$., ',, '-liirr+ii;, ..f;ii.tffill #.t ., "g:iir:r.iii:i:iffifliilti$ '.;: :r#.i&:,,,,;,:i :.rt,i#ii#ii.Wi.:i:i;.,:',1:#iii, : ' :i : :ri.:#i .:i: :U 4::Eal:::::r.::::::::i::al ::.:iFiilitWxui,,'. l:i$:iii.Ei:': '' :'#Si:::.:iiilll*i:f::::::.i.i:ti:iiilb;i:: ..::..ffiffi ;,...l.i.ffi fi ;.i:,.,'.',.iw,,.

:ffi|

,.:':.i::*lt.:::::::::

E,',i$i.t


4/7

4seen as a time to laugh at Satan and make fun of himand to rejoice in Christ's victory over death and de-mons. The only real reason that we are reluctant to jointhe party is because Christianity fears the use anddevelopment of imagination.My Methodist mother would point out that I had,in days prior to Orthodoxy, participated in Halloween.Where was the harm? I had watched all the Franken-stein, Werewolf, and Dracula movies, trick-or-treated,and had dress up as everything from a bum to theMummy. Had this furned me into a satanist or devoteeof Samhain? My mother would agree with Dr. Rearick.Why deprive children of a chance to use their imagina-tion and engage in harmless fun?while an orthodox Christian may disagree withI)r. Rearick's (and my Mother's) analysis, we must facethe fact that we now have a change in context, a newway of seeing the world. This is no longer a druid worldgoverned by Samhain, devils, the walking dead, andevil spirits, and Satan. It is a brave new world of humanhopes, dreams, ambitions, and fears. It is a place ofimagination and celebration.It is a world where God, ffidin particular the God of Or-thodoxy, has been pushed tothe side and made irrelevant.A new order has arisen witha new way of seeing thingsand this worldview informsevery aspect of modernwestern life. In short, we callthis worldview "secularism."

Novus Ordo SeclorumWebster defines secu-larism as "indifference to orrejection of religion and reli-gious considerations." Whilewe may object to the hedon-ism and materialism of ourduy, these are not new to thisworld. There have always been those who loved pleas-ure more than God and who placed their material well-being above their spiritual life. W-hat is most importanthere is the word "indifference,' and it draws its lifefrom a basic an all-pervasive idea: all truth, especiallyreligious huth, is relative. Fr. Seraphim Rose spoke ofthis new philosophy. He used the word "Nihilism", andcalled it the basic philosophy of the 20th century.Maybe you've read this quote. It illustrates theindifferent spirit of our age.

If I were the Devil -- by Paul Harvey"If I were the devil, I would gain control of the mostpowerful nation in the world; I wou'ld delude theirminds into thinking that they had come from man's ef-fort, instead of God's blessings; I would promote an atti-tude of loving things and using people, instead of theother way around.I would dupe entire states into relying on gamblingfor their state revenue;I would convince people that character is not an is-

The Voicesue when it comes to leadership;I would make it legal to kill unborn babies; I wouldmake it socially acceptable to take one's own life, andmake machines to make it convenient; I would cheapenhuman life as much as possible so that the life of ani-mals are valued more than human beings.I would take God out of the schools, where even themention of His name was grounds for a lawsuit; I wouldcome up with drugs that sedate the mind and target theyoung, and I would get sports heroes to advertise them.I would get control of the media, so that every nightI could pollute the mind of every family member withmy agenda; I would attack the family, the backbone ofany nation.I would make -rdivorOe--mfashionable; If the family crumbles, so does the nation.I would compel people to express their most de-praved fantasies on cinvas and movie screens, and callit art.I would convince the world that people are born ho-mosexuals, and that their lifestyles should be accepted.

One of the worrying aspects of American cultural imperialism aftdirqAustralia, and indeed the Western world, is tre grwing poprlaig dcelebrating Halloween on the evening of Odder 31st. This is a newphenomena in Australia - unheard of even thirty years ry ard or*y rn-derstood even then only by those who watched American sitsm on TVand understood as a North American cultural ddity. Desple ils u(grs inCeltic cosmology and belief, Halloween as practiced today in Nsfrr AnFr-ica and among some Australians was never a widespread culfurd cdFbration in the United Kingdom or indeed in Europe. The paglil bdbfrunderpinning Halloween are fostered by contemporary exporenb dWicca, nature worship, witchcraft and a plethora of New Age pagrr beliefs. Encouraging children to dress in costumes promoting honor ad heoccult to celebrate a pagan religious festival is something s'hi$ Orffixfamilies should not encourage or promote. Parents should homs bepro-active and encouraged to protest at such activities takirg dace lnday.careandpre-schoolcentres,kindergartensandinp,rlmary#where it is often promoted as harmless group activity. Parents shanHalso take care not to allow their children to participate in Halloreen pil-ties or the like, or to go "trick or treating" but ipsted educate frrdr $i1-dren as to the real meaning of Halloween and the dangens of frre occult.

I would convince the peoplethat right and wrong are de-trmined by a few who callthemselves authorities andrefer to their agenda as po-liitically correct.I would persuade people thatthe church is irrelevant andout of date, and the Bible isout of print; I would dull theminds of Christians, andmake them believe thatprayer is not importarrt, and&at faithfulness and obedi-ence are optional.f:fmilrm... I guess if I werethe devil, I'd leave thingsprefiy much the way theyare. Good day."We shoul&remembei thilTir -=----the. past paganism was a religious phenomenon. Therewas a comrnon ground and a common theological lan-guage between pagan society and the Church. The Ro-man soldier torturing you might be a pagan, but he wasa god-fearing man who affended the temple with hisfamily, had two chariots in the garage, affended sportingevents at the coliseum, and even had an altar in hishouse. Of course, he called Christianrty atheism, and hewould kill you for believing it.Today's modern pagans are also "god-fearingpeople." They might attend church with family, havetwo cars in the garage, attend or watch'sporting events,etc, Concerning the religion of others, they are tolerantbecause "after all, there is no real difference betweenus." Though a member of a denomination, the modernsecular pagan is prideful of the fact that he really be-lieves that denominations are in fuct of no real conse-quence. To the mind of the modern,,secular pagan, themore absolute ihe claim to truth, the more irrelev ant itseems to the cares and concerns of modern life. Is it arrywonder then that to these modern folk, Halloween is no


5/7

Vol. 5 No. 2 October 2005big deal?Such is the world in which we now live and thosewho claim the Orthodox F'aith undertake a unique chal-lenge. Never before have Christians lived in a societythat is secular by design and intention. Because we donot address our worldliness we can, on a Saturduy nighthold a Halloween party instead of going to Vigil. It isn'tuntil St. John walks in our midst and looks at us withthose piecing eyes that we suddenly feel the presence ofthat other world, the Kingdom of God, and we begin tosense our uffer conformity to the world.The Lord said, "r pray not that thou shouldesttake them out of the world, but that shouldest keep themfrom evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not ofthe world." (John 17:15-16) How is it possible to ac-complish this?

RepentFirst, we need to repent.Well, we hear this all the timein Church, but I propose thatwe must go deeper than justfeeling sorry about the situa-tion. The Greek word for re-pentance is "metanoie" whichmeans a "change of mind." St.Paul tells us that we shouldnot be conformed to thisworld, but transformed by "therenewitrg of our minds." Thismeans that we strive to gainthe mind of Christ, an Ortho-dox mind. Fr. Seraphim be-lieved that modern man couldnot come to Christ fully untilhe was first aware of howmuch the world had changed.Instead of just crittcuing theworld, wo must recognize theNihilism (or secular spirit) inourselves. "The Nihilism ofour age exists in all," he wrote,'r and those who do noL withthe aid of God, choose to com-bat it in the name of the fullness of Being of the livingGod, are swallowed up in it already.In his book, For the Ltfe of the world, Fr. Schme-mann describes this change of mind and what it couldmean for us: "secularism, I submit, is above all a nega-tion of worship. I stress: - not of God's existence, not ofsome kind of transcendence and therefore some kind ofreligion. If secularism in theological terms is some kindof herosy, it is primarily a heresy about mall. It is a ne-gation of man as a worshiping being, as homo adorans:the one for whom worship is the essential act that both'posits' his humanrty and fulfils it,"

Like Fr. Seraphim, Fr. Schmemann is saying thatwe must gain an Orthodox mindset. And what is thismindset? It is a rejection of the indifference of plaguesmodern life. It means strive to live each moment as ifwe truly believe that the Holy Spirit "is everywhere pre-sent and fillest all things." The entire world becomes

5vehicle of God's appearing and there is no sphere of lifewithout His presence. "It is meet and rign-t to sing toThee, to bless Thee, to praise Thee, to give thanki toThee, and to worship Thee in every place of thy domin-ion ..."How did the Psalmist say it? " O Lord, thou hastsearched me, and known me. Thou knowest my down-tittittg and mine uprising, thou understandest mylhgught from afar. Thou compassest my path and mylying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. Forthere is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, thou knowestit altogether. Thou has beset me behind and before, andlaid thine hand upon me....'vv'hither shall I go from thyspirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence. If I as-cend into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed inhell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of themorning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,even there shall thy hand lead

ffie, and thy right hand shallhold me." (Psalm 139)Orthodox worship is not just aprivate matter. It is a rejectionof the duality of the modernsecular world a duality thatsays, God is here, but He isnot there. The goal of mystriving is to become a sacra-mental man, who sees the en-tire universe as a place ofGod's appearing. That meansthat family and work and lei-sure are not separate placesapart from God.True repentance is never aneasy thing to accomplish, andgaining an Orthodox mindsetin this world will not be easyeither. As a priest, I see mypeople struggling with theconfusion of rying to live anOrthodox life in a today'sworld.I was going to school in Eng-land when I first met the Or-thodox community at Durham University. These sfu-dents came from all over the Orthodox world. I met myfirst archimandrite there and my first archpriest. onething I remember is that they all seernd cuiious abouthow it was possible to live as a Christian such a secularand pluralistic country as the uSA. I was a Methodistthen, but I had to admit that I didn't have a ready an-swer. I would guess however that if trends continue asthey ffie, and as the secularism and materialism of theWest continue to conquer the East, they too might haveto struggle to find an answer. God help them.

The Tools of RepentanceHoly orthodoxy and the church have given usthe tools to transform our minds. All are containedwithin Holy Tradition: attending' Church, fasting,prayer, the reading of Scripture, the reading of the livesof the Saints, and the teachings of the Fathers, all these


6/7

things can work to make us holy people. It isn't enoughto just possess the tools, we must actually use the toolsif we are to build anything of lastitrg value.Often people ask me why the Orthodox Churchrepeats things so much. "again and again".This is what I tell them: How do I know the fol-lowing so well?"My bologna has a first name, its OSCAR.My bologna has a second name, its MEYER.Oh, I love to eat it everyduy,And if you ask me *hy, I'll say'Cause Oscar Meyer has a wayWith b-o-l-o-g-n-a "How do I know it so well after so many years? Be-cause I heard it sung by some child over and over andover again on the TV and the radio. Fifth Ave. believeswholeheartedly in "again and again."Perhaps if I read the morning prayers oftenenough, I would know the prayers as well as the OscarMeyer song. Maybe, having learned them by heart, Imight begin .to dwell upon words and ponder them.Maybo, I would allow the words to sink in and becomea part of me. Maybe, just maybe, by the Grace of Godfound in these prayers, I might actually begin to thinkthe way an Orthodox Christian should think.As a priest, and as your Orthodox brother, this iswhat disturbs me when people are habitually absentfrom Vigil. This is what disturbs me when folks confesslaxity in prayer, reading, and fasting. I wonder how anyof us will be able to resist the power of worldly confor-

The Voicemity when we simply will not lift the shield of faith orput on the helmet of salvation to protect ourselves.

Enjoyrng the X'ruits of RepentanceSo, we must have the desire to see worldliness inourselves, and we must use the tools that Orthodorygives us. Is there anything left?Yes.Years ago, I made the observation that peoplewould attend faithfully attend Church services despitethe fact that they had to wash their clothes in the river,gather their food from the fields, make their ownclothes, harness the horse, cook from scratch, etc.Goodness, where did they find thrc time to go to Churchso much? Now, in this wonderful mode-rn world, we are"blessed" with time-saving and labour-saving devices:dishwashers, clothes washers, canned and preparedfoods, ready made cl'othes, fast cars, etc. Yet, even withthis timesaving technology, it seems that we have lesstime for spiritual life than our predecessors.What has happened?I heard it said once that today the Devil majors inthree things: noise, crowds, and hurry. Certainly, silencehas virtually disappeared from our lives. *Crowds"doesn't simply mean a lot of people, but it means enter-tainmenl spectacles, and diversion. We have certainlyhave an abundance ofit in this country. I could speak atlength upon each of these, but I want to deal mainlywith the issue of hurry.To enjoy the fruits of repentance, we must dealwith the issues of priority and time. This is what*hurr5r" is all about. The pace of life has quickened, andthis why, even with our technolory, we have less timethan before. ListerU I know we are tired, I know that ourlives are full, and I know that we grow weary of hearingpriests complain about why we aren't more faithful.All I want to say is that if we do not set our pri-orities to make the Kingdom of God first before allthings, the world will set our priorities for us. If we donot commit the time necessary to enjoy the fruits of ho-liness, the world will take away what little time wehave. If we do not seek a place of silence, the world willinundate us with noise. If we do not strive to be trans-formed, conformity will surely overtake us.The choice is ours. Yet, if we do not choose, thechoice will be made for us.

ConclusionPerhaps, you feel that I have gone a bit far fromthe topic of Halloween. Possibly, but to piously say toour beloved pagans that we don't celebrate because weare "not of this world" (i.e. Orthodox) is laughable if weare as worldly as they are. By worldly, I don't mean thatwe participate in the gross sins of the flesh. But if weare also hurried, concerned with success, fretting overmoney, fretting over possessions, constantly seekingentertainmen constantly filling our lives with noise,putting God in a Sunday morning bog finding littleplace for Him in the weekday cyclg of work and fam-ily - then they will see the truth - we are just as pagan astley are. Our protests about Halloween will fail to con-vmce anyone.

{"f

Trick or treat?


7/7

Vol. 5 No. 5 October 2005(Contirued from page 6 " Halloween - Orthodory and Secalar Culnre ")You see, it's a matter or witness by word andstyle of living. We must witness to the truth that JesusChrist is the Son of the only true God; that all thingswere.made by him, and for him. Christ holds all thingstogether and by him all things consist. He is Word ofGod, the source of all tnrth, beauty, and love. Any cul-ture, tradition or nation, even a seoular one cannot limithim. This must be our Orthodory, and to believe it andto wihess it is to truly become a "fool for Christ.,,Never has it been more foolish than it is today to be anOrthodox witness in the secular world of today. It is forthis witness then that we don't participate in Halloween.By non-participation in Halloween, we refuse toacquiesce to the greatest and most subtle frick of theDevil. In Dr. Rearick's world, the Devil does not exisor if he does, he is simply nothing more than somethingto laugh at. Modern media has made horror fun. Videogames desensitized the mind by making images of evilcommonplace and part of our playtime. This is similarto what Fr. Seraphim Rose wrote about in his boolq Or-thg4ory and the Religion of the Future. Fr. Seraphimbelieved that if you took the entire psychic phen-ome-non - from something as benign as the TV series SranTrekto the "Gnostic Christianity" of psychic gurus suchas Sylvia Brown - the mind of humanity is being subtlyprepared to receive the guidance of "beings of higherintelligence." These beings could be spiritual guidesthat channel through us, or they could be riding onUFOs. In reality, Fr. Seraphim believed, this mentalconditioning is preparation for the Antichrist.Whether or not you agree, with Fr. Seraphim'sanalysis, Halloween, as it is practiced rejoices in the ir-relevance of spiritual evil. Today, spiritual evil is but agoncept, and a dated one at that. Like all religious truthit is relative, and is thought to lie solely in thelnner psy-chological landscape of the individual. Therefore, it iJ amatter of therapy and is of little importance to the caresand striving of the modern, paganand secular world.So, I don't participate, but with that alone, Ishouldn't congratulate myself. What is more importantis that I attain to stillness and salvation. If I do, .tenthousand around me will be saved." I doubt that loudlyprotesting Halloween will accomplish as much.I end with these words from Abba pambo: ..Inthose times the love for God in most souls will growcold and a great sadness will fall onto the world.-Onenation shall face-offagainst another. peoples will moveaway from their own places. Rulers will be confused.The clerry will be thrown into anarchy, and the monkswill be inclined more to negligence. The church leaderswill consider useless anything concerned with salvation,as much for their own souls as for the souls of theirflocks, and they will despise any such concern. All will$oy _gagemess and enerry for every matter regardingtheir dining table and their appetites. They'll belazy intheir prayers and casual in their criticisms. As foi thelives and teachings of the Holy Fathers, they'll not haveany interest to imitate them, nor even to hear them. Butrather they will complain and say, "if we had lived inthose times, then we'd have behaved like that." And the

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. lnmy Fathefs house are many rooms; if it rrere not so, I rrrould have toldyou. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and pre.pare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me thatyou also may be vdrere I am. You know the uny to the place where Iam going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, ule don't know where you aregoing, so how can ure know the uay?" Jesus answered, n,l am ihe wayand the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except throughme." John 14:t-6Bishops shall give way to the powerful of the world,giving answers on different matters only after takinggifts from everywhere and consulting the rational logicof the academics. The poor man's rights will not be de-fended; they'll afflict widows and hardss orphans. De-bauchery will permeate these people. Most won't be-lieve in God; they'll hate each other and devour one an-other like beasts. The one will steal from the other;they'll be drunk and will walk about as blind.His disciple again asked, "Abba, what can we doin such a state?'And Elder Pambo answered, "My child, in thesetimes whoever will save his soul and prompt others tobe saved will be called great in the Kingdom ofHeaven."

*:The author, Father John Moses, is pastor af Ail Saintsof America Russian orthodox Church (RoCoR), Mid-dlebrook, Virginia, USA.

halloween-what is it?

Documents