Thinking Through Church Harvest Festivals

I used to be opposed to church harvest festivals. I felt sorry for kids who begged their parents to let them Trick-or-Treat and wear a vampire costume like the other kids only to be forced to spend the entire evening at church. Since I don't think Halloween is a bad thing, I never understood the point of fighting it. I have changed my stance on this issue in recent years.

Halloween isn't a problem, for me. I'm sure you've heard that it's a holiday for the Devil or that demons walk the Earth on that day disguised as candy corn or something. The truth is, no one can trace the roots of Halloween very well because each culture has its own seemingly ancient background for the holiday. Personally, I've always thought it was neat to have a day when we all remember those things that we fear and put them in perspective. (Which doesn't explain why I dressed up as a robot, one year. Halloween really doesn't make any sense.) Anyway, it seemed like a waste of time, to me, to set up a church festival that socially opposed Halloween.

Worst. Harvest festival. Ever.

But, things have changed. Does anyone let their kids Trick-or-Treat, anymore? The threat of receiving poison in candy has been wildly overstated, but the idea of letting kids wander the streets is less appealing with every episode of the evening news - harvest festivals have become the only safe option for some parents.

It's no longer relevant to use harvest festivals to oppose Halloween, instead, it's about safety and fun. A church or community can work together to give the kids a fun evening without the threat of predators and such. I've slowly come around to the harvest festival bandwagon and I think that they provide many memorable Halloween memories for kids.

These kids are supposedly dressed up for Halloween, but it's Japan so it's kind of hard to tell.

But I certainly don't want to see Halloween go away. I would regret it if Halloween lost its Victorian Gothic identity and the romance that goes with it. So, I'm not interested in toppling Halloween and advocating church alternatives like a social holiday usurper, but I've learned that Harvest Festivals have a lot more to offer than I originally thought - so I'll leave them alone.

OK, THIS is a stupid thing that people do at Halloween/Harvest festivals. Please, don't make your kids do this - it's idiotic. Maybe the threat of H1N1 will scare parents away from this sort of activity and Halloween will be better for it. (Threat of the Flu should ALWAYS deter such asinine activities in the late Fall, but no one cares about their health.)

Thinking Through...The Da Vinci Code

With a sequel to The Da Vinci Code on the way to theaters, it seemed wise to point out the silliness of Dan Brown's accusations. I hear that his book is fun to read (I'm a busy medievalist and only have time to read actual books about church history) but his claims are ludicrous and have added to society's misunderstandings about Christianity.

Hey, it's an effeminate guy! And, look, another effeminate guy!
Proof that there were 13 women at the Last Supper!

My favorite is the assertion that Constantine decided the canon, that is, that he decided which books of the Bible would be authoritive. This is not supported by documentation, in fact, he relied on other theologians for his spiritual leadership. He called for meetings to decide how the church could be organized, but only made recommendations; he did not try to shape theology. As this book will tell you, he did not care about having too many specific points in his belief system; instead, he was interested in helping the different factions of the church agree on some basic principles so they could be united.

The canon is usually attributed to Athansius, who lived at the same time as Constantine but was certainly not his friend. (After Athanasius' recommendation, the canon was further scrutinized and discussed by the church so it cannot be said that any single person made the decision.)

Listverse.com has a fantastic article on this and the real reason I set up this blog entry was so I could simply point you there - but I got distracted and wanted to write about Constantine. Enjoy, and tell your friends not to be afraid of albinos. Here's the list.

Thinking Through...Swine Flu

As you can tell, I'm not posting a lot right now and it has to do with school. It's this time of year when I don't water the plants, clean the apartment, or take care of anything but the most vital responsibilities to my health while finishing essays and madly reading texts in time for quizzes. And my blog suffers for it.

Anyway, I came across some advice on the swine flu (via Instapundit.com), here's the two main ideas, but there is more at the link:

*There is always some flu around and flu is always killing some people. Even when a raw mutant flu manages to kill off more people than a shooting-war, flu has never ravaged whole cities as cholera or the Black Death can do. As awful pandemics go, flu is like the snotty-nosed little sister of awful pandemics.

*You're not ACTUALLY gonna die unless your lips are turning blue, you have bad chest pains, you can't swallow water, you can't stand up, you're having seizures and you don't know where you are or what your name is. As this document suggests, you're gonna want to watch out for those symptoms.

And this simple, but critical, piece of advice from the Center of Disease Control:

The main way that influenza viruses are thought to spread is from person to person in respiratory droplets of coughs and sneezes. This can happen when droplets from a cough or sneeze of an infected person are propelled through the air and deposited on the mouth or nose of people nearby. Influenza viruses may also be spread when a person touches respiratory droplets on another person or an object and then touches their own mouth or nose (or someone else’s mouth or nose) before washing their hands.

(The link also contains information for what to do if you or someone else contracts the swine flu.)

So wash your hands like your mother always told you to do and don't worry. also, if you know of any more tips that are helpful, let me know in the comments. (Oh, yeah, and this guy looks really funny. Do they steal driver's license photos for these pictures?)