October 8, 2023
Dear All,
Fall is here, finally! Thoughts turn to raking leaves and pruning shrubs, sweaters and boots and warmer coats. This is my favorite time of year. I wonder which season is yours?
A couple of things to talk with you about . . .
We will be having monthly potlucks after church for several reasons: 1) because we enjoy each other’s company so much; 2) we enjoy each other’s food so much, and it is an opportunity for us to engage in learning and conversation on different topics important to St. Paul’s. This month on October 22nd we will gather following the Children’s Sabbath service to learn about autism. St. Paul’s chooses to be inclusive of all folks and to do so, we need to learn a bit about how to be welcoming and present to those with autism – whether child or adult. How do we engage? What is this disease all about? What do we need to know to be inclusive of their unique needs? I urge you to join us on this day for great food and information. Bring your favorite potluck dish and copies of the recipe – we can swap! Don’t forget to sign up.
October 29th at 5:00pm – we are bringing back our All Souls/All Hallow’s Eve worship and party as it was so well received last year. This is the one opportunity you have each year to dress up in a costume for church (creativity is good but good taste is also good). Then we enjoy a party with seasonal food, of course candy, crafts, etc. It is always great to fun to see who will dress up as what or who. And it is always great fun to see what Jack Baker will be wearing this year. I hope you can join us. This is the only church service where you will hear the story of the Witch of Endor read.
You might ask what is the history of Halloween or All Hallow’s Eve?
Halloween is a new-ish way of saying All Hallows’ Eve or the Eve of All Saints Day. It is a vigil that Christians keep before the actual feast day of All Saints. All Saints Day (hopefully that sounds familiar) is the celebration of our Christian belief in the Communion of the Saints. Or to put it a slightly different way, the belief that all Christians, both living and dead, are in fact Alive in Christ and are One Body, family, or people.
The customs of Halloween are a mixture of Catholic popular devotions, and French, Irish, and English customs all mixed together. From the French we get the custom of dressing up, which originated during the time of the Black Death when artistic renderings of the dead known as the “Danse Macabre” were popular and meant to convey that death comes to each and every one of us, no matter our station in life.
These were acted out by people who dressed as the dead — nervously, comedically, to “laugh in the face of death” and for a sense of relief from the nightmarish reality of the plague that felled at least a third — and possibly up to 60% — of the people living in Europe. These danse macabre customs were moved to Hallowe’en when the Irish and French began to intermarry in America.
From the Irish come the carved Jack-o-lanterns, which were originally carved turnips. The legend surrounding the Jack-o-Lantern is this:
There once was an old drunken trickster named Jack, a man known so much for his miserly ways that he was known as “Stingy Jack,” He loved making mischief on everyone — even his own family, even the Devil himself! One day, he tricked Satan into climbing up an apple tree — but then carved Crosses on the trunk so the Devil couldn’t get back down. He bargained with the Evil One, saying he would remove the Crosses only if the Devil would promise not to take his soul to Hell; to this, the Devil agreed.
After Jack died, after many years filled with vice, he went up to the Pearly Gates — but was told by St. Peter that he was too miserable a creature to see the Face of Almighty God. But when he went to the Gates of Hell, he was reminded that he couldn’t enter there, either! So, he was doomed to spend his eternity roaming the earth. The only good thing that happened to him was that the Devil threw him an ember from the burning pits to light his way, an ember he carried inside a hollowed-out, carved turnip.
From the English Catholics we get begging from door to door, the earlier and more pure form of “trick-or-treating.” Children would go about begging their neighbors for a “Soul Cake,” for which they would say a prayer for those neighbors’ dead. Instead of knocking on a door and saying “Trick-or-treat,” children would say either:
A Soul Cake, a Soul Cake,
have mercy on all Christian souls for a soul cake!
or
Soul, soul, an apple or two,
If you haven’t an apple, a pear will do,
One for Peter, two for Paul,
Three for the Man Who made us all.
While Soul Cakes were originally a type of shortbread, it is said that a clever medieval cook wanted to make Soul Cakes designed to remind people of eternity, so she cut a hole in the middle of round cakes before frying them, thereby inventing donuts!
If Music Be the Food coming soon! It is our great honor to join with MSU music students twice a year to host a concert in support of the First Presbyterian Food Bank. This is our third year of hosting and you really want to be here for an hour of delightful and well-performed music. The students are wonderfully gifted and yet nervous as the dickens! I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with them and am amazed at their talent, their confidence performing in front of folks, and their nerves behind the scene. They desire to do well and give to us the joy of music – their performance is solely to bring us, the audience, joy. Not only do you feel good leaving the concert, you also support the Food Bank who feeds so many in our neighborhood. Price of admission to the concert? A donation of non-perishable food item. That’s it. November 11th at 7:00pm
Continue your prayers for our world, country, community, St. Paul’s and your family. We are in great need of so many prayers. Thank you to all who have worked so hard on the book sale. And thanks to Dick Hamlin for his wonderful class on the Bible. Three more weeks to join the class.
Blessings to you and yours,
Karen+