I’ve decided that I’m going to start publishing my columns for The Tahlequah Christian, the weekly newsletter of First Christian Church of Tahlquah, OK and my congregation. These will be categorized under the heading of the same name. This article was originally published on October 27, but from here on I plan to begin publishing my columns regularly on Tuesdays simultaneous with the weekly newsletter. So without further adieu…
It’s the time of the year when our televisions tend to get a little worked up over the season. Without fail, my tv is overrun with horror movies, candy commercials, and all kinds of “information” on Halloween. Normally, I don’t get too excited about it. I haven’t worn a costume in years, and more often than not I seem to be away from my home on Halloween night, so I don’t hand out a lot of goodies. But this year, with all the hoopla starting up again, I decided to do a little research into the holiday myself.
Did you know Halloween itself is short for All Hallows Evening, which comes from an old English term: eallra hâlgena æfen? (Don’t ask me to pronounce it!) And furthermore, it has its roots in Catholic tradition? Hallow is another word for Holy, and it turns out Halloween is traditionally the evening before All Saints Day on November 1st. The scary stuff, however, comes from Celtic lore. The festival of Samhain (from old Irish) was held to mark the end of summer and the beginning of the “darker” days of winter. It was believed that on Samhain the boundary between this world and the spirit world was especially thin, and spirits could slip back and forth between the two. Today that translates to ghost costumes at our front doors and weird horror movies on our tv sets.
And all of this left me to think about that which we “hallow”: our faith tradition, our scriptures, our God. What information have we missed out on when it comes to our Christian journey? I’ve been doing some theological work at school that has led me deeper into certain parts of the bible than I had ever studied before. Did you know that there are multiple stories of God creating and re-creating the world? Genesis 1 gives us the 6-day creation. Genesis 2-3 gives us Adam & Eve in the Garden. John 1 gives us “in the beginning was the Word.” Psalms 74 & 89 give us a battling warrior God – all creation stories, but not all of the creation stories. Noah’s story in Genesis 6-9 gives us one of the re-creation stories along with the entire book of Job. It’s too bad we don’t have a “Biblical Creation Day” holiday, so we can have our tvs and stores teach this stuff for us. I guess we’ll just have to make time for it on our own!
Looking forward to studying with you along the journey,
Clint
