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Monday, October 29, 2007

Fine Old Customs


It seems to me a certain party who gave a fine sermon last night, was all too familiar with the old custom of Halloween pranks. It was noted that in the past the "yuth" didn't receive the prepackaged treats given to children now. They did get homemade treats. Some of the "yuth," boys in particular, used the night for pranks. Some fairly harmless, some, shall we say, more ... involved. This might have ranged from tying tin cans on the back of cars as they were stopped at a stoplight, to adorning a rooftop with a farm implement. Adventures for the real risk takers may have run the gamut from knocking over a row of mailboxes to full out outhouse tipping. I expect if outhouses were still in numerous supply today, there are a few communities who'd scarce have one standing by the dawn's early light.

Father mentioned how many of the halloween customs, such as the jack-o-lantern derived from the Irish immigrants. Upon further questions after Mass regards his intimate association with pranks, he allowed that he had fallen in with a gang of "yuth" or two in the past. Further queries boxed him into taking the fifth amendment. I think at this remove he is safe from being put in juvenile hall.

Father gave a fine sermon on All Saints, and All Souls. He particularly wanted us to remember that we shouldn't associate purgatory with hopelessness, but that it was actually a very hopeful place, because it gave us a chance to cleanse ourselves before heaven.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great picture! Thank God for indoor plumbing! And, Father is right, purgatory is a good thing--if we get to purgatory--you know you'll end up in Heaven. (may take me a few billion years)

swissmiss said...

I've heard that the only difference between Purgatory and Hell is that the souls in Purgatory have hope...the hope of being released one day and entering Heaven.

When I was dating my husband, my PIL's cabin had an outhouse. It was the creepiest outhouse ever. Full of HUGE spiders and goodness knows what else. I would often times just find a tree instead of risking life and limb in the outhouse. Too bad I don't have a picture of the thing! Awful, horrible, nightmarish!!

gemoftheocean said...

My only experience with an outhouse was when I was 7 or so and went to Girl Scout Day camp. IIRC there was a "two holer" in the woods. Thank God I didn't think of the spiders then. I never got the "two-hole" thing, unless "back in the day" you had kids afraid to go out there by themselves. Two's company.

Fr. Said not to worry about being in physical pain ... i.e. "fires" in the sense of hell-fire. I'm with Tara. If I land there I'd be happy, because I'd know eventually I'd be going to heaven. I suppose the eschatological equivalent of detention.

Karen

ArchAngel's Advocate said...

Dante has the souls in Purgatory singing because of the realization how close to Heaven they were. The difference between Purgatory and Hell is our attitude. The fires in both places is the Fire of God's purifying Love, in Hell we reject the Love, in Purgastory we accept Its healing nature, and in Heaven we fully accept and actualize It.

Anonymous said...

Well of course in Purgatory you know you are saved..

re Halloween..i don't get it although my parents were Irish immigrants we never celebrated it..apart from All souls & All Saints Day..

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