Tuesday November 1st

All Saints' Day, and a day of mixed emotions, not least because of a family funeral - a time for memories of times past as well as all the catching up one does with relatives and friends not seen for a while.

Many 'trick or treaters' called last night, all, I'm pleased to say, sensible and supervised by parents. So no sweets left in the house now! I don't have a problem with the keeping of Hallowe'en, and I remember it being well kept in my home church, with traditional activities like apple bobbing. But I have mixed feelings about the way it's kept now, and cringe a little when I hear people say (as I did the other day) "It's my favourite festival of the year!"

Our Hallowe'en keeping in the past was by tradition a time to get scarily close to the 'things of the dark' (and we do seem to enjoy that kind of scary), but at the same time to expose their lack of substance and ability to harm those who choose to live in the light. In other words, whatever pagan festival of magic there may have been in that slot, the church was keeping it very much as the Eve of All Saints. We discovered, were reminded, where the real source of power lies, and that love always wins out over hate, light is triumphant over dark.

Today we simply seem to be celebrating the grim and ghoulish without any critical engagement. I suppose that, seen as something that's just done for a laugh, that this is harmless enough, and indeed, for most people in most situations, no harm is done. But the way is open to some credulous and easily led minds into something that is, when taken seriously, a dark and harmful antithesis to faith, to do with the possession of magic which is about acquiring and using power, rather than the offering of prayer which is about seeking and serving and responding.

Having said that, I don't think the Church should oppose Hallowe'en in the way that some have sought to do. If anything, that only serves to increase the allure. But it should use it, in the creative way that - as I recall - it used to (with scary parties and fun things to do together, but with a theme of light and good, rather than dark and evil). And if that were to result in the fading out of the American import of trick or treat, well, for me anyway, no bad thing!