All Saints Day

Having just completed a project at work in the morning, I took a little extra time at lunch and drove up for the Litany at noon. Afterwards Fr. Daniel and I went and got some lunch together, time to chat about this, that and the other.

I'd noticed the bulletins for the All Saints' Day service at 10 AM were still on the stand and picked one up as we left, in case there was something there to write about. So with that in my pocket, over lunch I asked Fr. Daniel about it. I learned that about 10 people were present, including the McGraths, the Millers, Mary Ellen and Kathy. The Millers had made chili for those who could stay and have lunch after (if only I had not been so busy!)

I learned too that the "Miller Menagerie" had also come for the Solemn Evensong the evening before (generally known as All Hallow's Eve, or something like that), and then(?) joined the McGraths at their townhouse complex for a small trick-or-treat complex-wide session.

But I found the complex-centered trick-or-treat yet another indicator of change in our culture -- at least in the Pacific Northwest.

This is the second year in which we've had no visitors at our house. Our somewhat rural locale dictates that we're not likely to have many, and the ever-increasing house prices seem to result in departing families being replaced by Microsoft couples (i.e., they both work for Microsoft and have no time to have children). At the same time we have a developing tradition in my office wherein people bring candy and have it at their offices/cubicles/pods, and co-workers bring in their children in the afternoon for trick-and-treat.

Safer than my childhood days, I guess, where we kids sometimes competed to see who could reach the most houses, but in my mind some innocence has been lost.

Is it real, is it fear? I don't know. Nobody in the town where I grew up ever encountered razor blades or other nasties in apples, though we all sure heard about them. But maybe the time for this accreted custom is passing and we can return to the original celebration of All Saints Day.

From the Te Deum:

The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee.
The noble army of Martyrs praise thee.
The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee;
The Father of an infinite Majesty;
Thine adorable, true and only Son;
Also the Holy Ghost the Comforter.