Actually, it's not supposed to be a happy day. Because the souls in heaven are honored tomorrow, and the souls in purgatory are remembered the next day, it has long been a Catholic custom to dwell today upon the souls in hell. It would not be amiss to offer prayers today for the conversion of all who are on the road to perdition.
Lisa gets the credit for noting the interesting fact that today is quite unusual in that secularists have paganized a Christian holiday, whereas for the most part Christianity "baptized" pagan feast days. The theme of the day was centered upon hell and damnation in its Catholic origins, but with the purpose of helping us to avoid them rather than glorifying in them.
3 comments:
Humbug to your unhappy halloween. It's happy here in America!
A co-worker noted last week that, thanks to Hallmark and other entities, there now exists a random theme for each day of the year.
I took the opportunity to tell him that this sort of thing already existed in Catholic culture; that there are at least 3 saints assigned to every day of the year, if not more.
I see things like this on occasion, and I think, "You want that? Come over here -- we've got the real thing!" :)
~Margo B
Great point. The secular feast days are the strangest things, too. I remember just a few months ago it was "national dress like a pirate day"
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