Proof of our society’s decline is that Halloween has become a broad daylight event for many. – Robert Kirby
For the fourth time since I’ve been writing this blog, we’ve come around to my favorite day of the entire year – All Hallows Eve, which also happens to be my birthday. This is the forty-seventh time I’ve seen this particular day (the first one hardly counts, since I arrived less than ninety minutes before the Witching Hour), and though I no longer observe it with the wild exuberance I did in my youth I still look forward to it every year, and still enjoy all the little rituals by which we celebrate it. In last year’s Halloween column I listed a number of “spooky” columns which might put y’all in the mood, and this year I decided to expand those recommendations into a full column: Monday’s “Trick or Treat“, which you really should read if you haven’t yet.
Unfortunately, Halloween has in our culture become merely a ghost (pardon the jest) of its former self; it is now largely an adult celebration, just a second carnival out of place in mid-autumn rather than where it belongs in the dead of winter. Today’s children are completely cheated of the holiday as it was meant to be celebrated; as I wrote in “The Day of the Dead“,
…our decaying society is far too obsessed with “safety” to let the kids be kids. It’s a peculiar paradox: the Child Cultists enshrine an idealized, romanticized view of childhood “innocence” to the point of trying to force it upon young adults who have long since grown out of it, yet are so frightened of the imaginary haunts their timid souls see in every shadow that they cheat actual children of the joys of childhood…And though we once understood that an annual dose of controlled fear and mild chaos helped children to cope with the existence of Mortem Imperator Mundi in much the same way vaccines protect them from disease, we have forgotten the former (and many of us the latter as well)…
Now, more than ever, we need Halloween. Death will claim us all soon enough; it’s both foolish and counterproductive to waste one’s life trying to escape the inescapable, and to suck all the marrow out of its bones in a futile attempt to delay the inevitable. Today is the day to flirt with the Reaper, to dance on one’s own grave, to play with skulls and to have fun with the gruesome…because the more familiar one is with something, the less terror it holds. And the less we fear death, the freer we are to enjoy everything life has to offer.
Happy Halloween, Dear Readers, and Blessed Be!
There’s nothing wrong with Halloween now being a holiday that adults can enjoy as much as kids, but it’s a damn shame that society is killing off what used to be a great holiday for kids. We buy candy for trick-or-treaters but they hardly come around anymore. It will be a shame if my neices enjoy the holiday more when they grow old enough to date and then go to Halloween dances. This also should be enjoyed while you are still a kid.
Anyway, Happy Birthday Maggie! Hope the book I gave you makes good Halloween reading even though it’s set during the middle of August. Although Hollywood has never done Agatha Christie’s book justice, there’s a reason why And Then There Were None remains the best-selling mystery of all time.
Did you see this?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/30/obese-halloween-letter/3312537/
My opinion – I’m really not concerned that the letter might hurt kid’s feelings. What I’m concerned about is this bullshit “nanny” culture where every “It Takes A Village” idiot seems to think they’ve been placed in charge of the rest of us.
Obesity – it’s not a problem for anyone except the fatty him or herself. Well, in the age of ObamaCare and socialized medicine – maybe it is a problem for all of us, but I’m not down with ObamaCare and don’t give a shit. People can diet and lose weight.
In fact – with ObamaCare I say to people … “EAT UP!” get as fat as you can to force these marxist idiots to pay up out of their wallets and cause them some pain for the program they fraudulently hoisted upon all of us!
Fat, can be burned off – but when you’re an idiot – that’s a fucking life-long affliction – and this woman is an idiot.
Now – I’ll tell you, as a Master Chief in the Navy – yeah, it was a problem with young people not being physically fit. It wasn’t so much obesity as it was the inability to perform minimum physical tasks – such as sit ups, push ups, and a 1.5 mile run. Skinny guys out of high school aren’t necessarily healthy guys even if they look good – and they’re not obese.
Now – if the Socialists want to go to a SPARTAN culture – I’m all for it! But that means nasty things like full-contact Pee Wee Football, Dodgeball at recess, and lifting weights in the gym. They’re not willing to go there.
No – they want to restrict kids from participating in ANY dangerous activity and they bitch when they get too fat from lack of activity!
Oh … I forgot … I’ve already said it but … HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
Very cute, thank you! And thanks to everyone else for the presents and wishes as well! 🙂
The comments under that article are interesting. People are ragging on that woman for being “cruel to children”. That’s not what annoys me: it’s the presumption that it’s her place to determine who is “too fat” or not. What an arrogant twit. Give them apples or sacks of Wheat Thins, you pompous meddler.
Happy (anniversary of your) birthday! Have a great day!
Happy birthday.
Halloween was never a big event for me as a child, especially when 5th of November was right around the corner. We’d go to bonfires, collect pennies for the guy.
Now, every 5th of November I watch V for Vendetta.
Happy Birthday!
“Mortem Imperator Mundi”
Everyone dies?
More like “Death, ruler of the world”, I think.
Yes. “Death, Emperor of the World”.
Thought that it was “O Fortuna, Imperatrix Mundi”, your Imperial Highness? 😉😍
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods.”
(Macauley)
Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile,
The short and simple annals of the poor.
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,
Awaits alike the inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
(Gray)
Happy Birthday Maggie.
Happy Birthday, Maggie! 😀
Happy Bday, Maggie. And has anyone else noticed that “Halloween costumes for adults have become too sexy” is a huge meme in the media this year? I’ve seen quite a few reports on this topic in cable TV and online news reports (don’t follow the network news, cable news is stupid enough as it is) but I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t covered there, too, they love to do some pearl-clutching whenever they get the chance.
Frankly, it feels kinda manufactured, very astroturf. Not sure where it’s coming from, except that any excuse to show sexy Halloween costumes is gonna draw eyeballs, of course. And the easiest way for the news media to cover sexual topics, is by disapproving of them.
I can tell you exactly who started it: whitebread “feminist” websites like Jezebel, beginning about two years ago. I disagree that they’re “too sexy”; however, I agree that the idea “anything is an appropriate theme for a sexy costume” is ridiculous.
I volunteered to work tonight at the bar because I knew it was gonna be shit hot with the costumes. I can’t wait. I’m going as William Wallace – with the face paint and all. Hope I don’t have to get into a fight – that will be hilarious to see Braveheart in a fisticuffs with Gumby or something.
This was the funniest costume I’ve seen so far – this isn’t the one that was at the bar the other night but pretty much an exact copy!
Guy stood outside the bar for 15 minutes doing this shit and I laughed my ass off the entire time – he was drunk. Then he came in and I bought him a beer!
Dan Savage said that Halloween is the gay pride parade for straight people. I think he has a point: it’s the one time of the year where sexy outfits and behavior are socially acceptable.
I think Dan Savage has a point. Also, that inflatable tube costume is great.
Er, make that “safest way for the news media to cover sexual topics”
Happy Birthday, Maggie. And Happy Halloween. Here’s a special Halloween message from the CEO of silver Shamrock novelties, Conal Cochran himself:
Happy Birthday.
This is a very underrated movie.
Totentanz—the dance of the dead—is a common street name in Swiss towns. Originally, the Totentanz was a mural or fresco on the wall of a church or graveyard. There are also various musical works, such as dance macabre by Saint-Saëns, based on the tradition. So far, I’ve been unable to establish any clear connection to Halloween.
You don’t know it yet, but that’s a perfect foreshadowing of tomorrow’s column. 🙂
Happy birthday and Happy Halloween.
Just in case you’re not familiar with it, here are a couple of clips from the 1937 film Der Dybbuk. It’s not about Halloween per se, but the themes are similar. I offer them hoping you will enjoy.
http://youtu.be/cXnA1Ystzr4
http://youtu.be/IjoCmYimeIo
Happy Birthday Maggie! I hope you’re having a happy Halloween as well! Thanks for everything!
A very Happy Birthday, Maggie!!
You’re forty-seven? So am I, although I’m quite a bit older, having been born on another major holiday.
It’s sad what Hallowe’en has come to these days. Not one kid came to my door tonight. There were none last year, either.
Happy belated birthday dear Maggie! My grandmother was also born on Halloween, and always was a bit of a flirt. Then again, all you Scorpios are, aren’t you?
Anyway, I came across this just now and though you might appreciate it: http://boingboing.net/2013/10/28/best-sexy-costume-2013-edgar.html
Only people with decades ahead of them write this kind of stuff. I’m 48, 2 young kids, and have advanced metastatic cancer such that the prognosis is a 50% survival time of 10 months. I’ll be trying anything I can to “delay the inevitable”. Oh foolish me for being upset at mere early death and the loss my children and wife will suffer (slaps himself in the face for being such an idiot).
I’m 47, and have lost several friends already. But I guess I’m just a young imbecile who thinks it’s cool to be Goth, or something.
Belated happy birthday Maggie.
Halloween birth eh?
I’d put it down to lapsed Catholicism, the bayou or being the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. Or something like that.
The first daughter of a first daughter of a first daughter, actually. And my mother isn’t remotely lapsed from Catholicism. 😉
I’d like to say that Tracy was wonderful this year. She wanted to get an early start, and *I* ended up delaying us. Even with that, we still got the early start. Some other things happened which delayed us further: the hot water was out, so the kitchen was overly active, stores were out of stuff, there was traffic congestion, etc. Even with all of this, only ONE kid showed up before we were ready. Kids started showing up a little before dusk, and continued until about 10.
I’ll be happy to keep going to her place for many Halloweens to come if she stays like this. She was great.