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.
