Where I went to Mass today they had both of the side altars decorated with plenty of pumpkins, gourds, and corn stalks. At least there weren’t Jack-o-lanterns. Now I have nothing against Halloween themes generally, but please leave them for home decoration and not the sanctuary of a church. I am not worried about any Pagan connections, I just find this decorating theme rather bizzare for a Catholic church.
22 comments
Now if it were to mark All Saints Day I wouldn’t have an issue with it, but we know thats not the case.
MB, I have sympathies for the anti-over-zealous-feminista movement, but at the same time the lector’s responsibility isn’t to alter the word of God to a word he sees fit. If the bishops choose to use “brothers and sisters” it may be best to begrudgingly say “and sisters” because they are the bishops and we aren’t. Otherwise how would we be different than voice of the faithful?
Maybe it was a harvest theme?
I’ve seen decorations like that in churches during fall, especially around Thanksgiving. They have the benefit of being not-plastic, yet cheaper and longer-lasting than flowers.
Now, like you said, if the pumpkins were *carved*, that would be a different matter entirely!
I have to agree with Meg. It sounds like fall decor not “Halloween” decor.
True, maybe it is Fall decor – but I still think any decor changes should follow the liturgical seasons not the regular seasons. We don’t get summer or spring decor.
Yeah: in our parish, the priest announced at the end of Mass that in the church hall, there were Halloween goodies for sale AND the Rosary Ladies were having a religious goods sale.
Weird. C’mon, parish! Be *counter*-cultural, not culture-mimics!
Speaking of which: if one is lectoring at daily Mass, must one read the “Brothers and sisters:” that has been appended to all of St. Paul’s readings? I got to read at the Cathedral on Saturday, and since I sincerely dislike this pandering to the feminist agenda, I left the “and sisters” out.
Good for you, MB. I feel the same.
Considering that “fall” started back in September, for this decor to show up this weekend is not even following regular seasons, let alone liturgical ones…if it was for harvest/Thanksgiving, then it technically wouldn’t come out until later in November, I’d think…I’d guess this was a “Christianizing” of the Halloween theme, misplaced though it may be.
Oh, come on, all ye faithful. The Lord Himself commanded us to celebrate harvest time. You don’t get more Christian than that. First fruits are _supposed_ to be brought to the altar. The pumpkins are just as suitable for this purpose as any other product of the earth.
And why the heck do you think they put “Priesthood Sunday” and “World Mission Sunday” in the fall, huh? Because the harvest is ready and laborers are few!!
Finally… Halloween belongs to _us_. I have no intention of giving up Halloween because of the way the world celebrates it, any more than I mean to give up Christmas, Easter, or New Year’s as Christian and Catholic holidays.
How about putting up some fake snow, snowmen, dead tree limbs, and icicles when it gets colder?
Weird.
These are fall vegetables and harvest symbols from God’s creation. How could those possibly desecrate an altar? Would you be offended by tulips near the altar in the spring?
Julie,
I wouldn’t say that they necessarily desecrate the sanctuary, but this idea of using bland things to adorn the church is odd. Anything that is material is “of God’s creation,” but that doesn’t make it, ipso facto, proper for decorating the sanctuary where the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is re-presented for our sanctification. We have to look and see what this type of decorating means to people who see it. We aren’t offerring squash up like the Israelites offerred up cereal offerings and cattle holocausts. They aren’t really all that beautiful, and they don’t inspire eternal, ethereal thoughts in the minds of the average worshipper. We have to look at this the way the average parishioner will look at it.
It’s much like the whole “let’s take the sand out of the holy water fonts during Lent to symbolize the spiritual dryness that one feels during a time of fasting….” The average parishioner walks by, dips their hand in the sandy font out of habit, and then thinks, “Huh, no Holy Water. Oh well. Weird decorators at it again.”
As much as we want these abstract symbols to mean something to the pewsitter, they don’t. And worse, they do not aid in accomplishing that which the Mass aims to do: remind people of heavenly realities that transcend the earthly toils that we must endure while we await our eternal reward.
If anything, a bunch of gourds might remind gardeners that there’s a ton of work left to do at home in their gardens…..
Top 10 Things to Do for a Catholic Halloween:
http://cantuar.blogspot.com/2007/10/top-ten-things-to-do-for-halloween.html
Speaking of which: if one is lectoring at daily Mass, must one read the “Brothers and sisters:” that has been appended to all of St. Paul’s readings? I got to read at the Cathedral on Saturday, and since I sincerely dislike this pandering to the feminist agenda, I left the “and sisters” out.
Pretty much what IA said. One must read what the lectionary says. One must also — or should — know the source of the Bible the lectionary reading comes from.
In the case of Saint Paul’s letters, many are just a part of the lectionary reading and therefore wouldn’t start out with “Brothers” of “Beloved” either.
While in sympathy with your objection to “inclusiveness,” yours is not the right to muck around with the lectionary. If you object so much, don’t put yourself in the ambo in the first place.
What your doing is climbing a slippery slope. Somebody else might not like a given translation and change it herself while reading and that would not be a good thing.
If you’re called upon to read, then read. Period. If you don’t like the translation or additions or whatever, stay in your pew.
2 things:
First, the Church is not the front window at the local Hallmark store. Our seasons are liturgical and the church should reflect that.
Second, I get irritated when priests and readers ‘cleaned up’ the readings with inclusive language. They did not have the authority to change those texts. If the page reads ‘brothers and sisters’ then that is what is read; if one side didn’t have the authority to change the words to suit them, then neither does the other.
Maureen;
Hallowe’en does not “belong to us” – it “belongs” to Pagans, and clumping it in with actual Church Feasts is plain wrong.
As Catholic Christians, we have two choices: we can “Christianize” it without giving too much patronage, or we can put more emphasis on the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls (or both).
We definitly do not own Hallowe’en and we shouldn’t strut around thinking that we do.
MikeA,
THe Church has always “baptized” pagan holidays, customs,m items, etc…. as their own. Just because a holiday was originally pagan in origin doesn’t mean that we should give up on bringing the Lordship of Christ to bear on time and space.
The very name, “Hallow e’en” is a contraction of (All) Hallows Evening (I’m sure you know this).
I think a better solution exists. The Dominicans in Washington DC have a great idea that deserves more attention. Every HAlloween, they have a candlelit vespers service with incense, chant, readings from martyrs, etc….. that creates the eerie atmosphere that people crave around this time. But, the difference is, it is centered around that most sacred event of a person’s life: their passing – the time they enter into eternity. You can see more about this at the following link:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week1010/belief.html
Enjoy!
Totally agree, I even feel uncomfortable when folks wear Halloween attire to Mass. Just goes along with the summer picnic clothes thing.
Our religious education classes each decorate a pumpkin as a saint. No carved pumpkins, but one pumpkin per class is decorated according to the Saint’s symbols. For example, St. Michael has wings glued to the back of the pumpkin, etc. The pumpkins are placed beneath the alter for All Saint’s Day and the children have learned about the saint as well as something about the Catholic feast days of All Souls Day and All Saint’s Day. The children are remarkably creative in decorating their chosen saint.
My school’s chapel has pumpkins and fall foliage around, and has, for a few weeks. And they’ll be out until Advent. Before them, we had summer-type flowere. So we follow the regular seasons and the liturgical ones. If it’s not Ordinary time, the liturgical one takes preference. And I think it’s ok to do regular seasons during Ordinary time – the seasons are a part of “ordinary” life, right? Just my two cents.
> ather bizzare for a Catholic church
That’s putting it mildly.
Side Altars! Jeff, be happy your parish is one of the few that still has side altars!
I am no fan of the whole “seasons of the year” and I think, if a Church is suitably decorated as a Church, then it needs very little to embellish it throughout the year. Change the tabernacle veil to correspond with the color of the office or season. IF There is a dossal curtain, and it can easily be changed for the seasons, you can do that, but we shouldn’t have to get into all this business of “art and environment”
The harvest adornments at our parish are beautiful. They seem to coincide more with the harvest vegetation than Halloween… In winter, we do have winter plants…It does make sense, is in keeping with the seasons, which are certainly not anti-liturgical, and we appreciate them. What? Are we supposed to surround the altar with unseasonal plants just to be sure no one thinks us pagan? I think that is going overboard in the other direction. It is good to thank and praise God AND adorn the altar in the context and the seasons He gives us.