Catholic
Holidays
Halloween is for Mourning
When Christianity replaced the secular humanism world view of the Greco-Roman world, and Europe became a theocracy, “witch” burning became popular sport. For six hundred years, Catholic priests, struggling with celibacy, tortured upward of one million women until they “confessed” to
witchcraft and were burned alive in village squares.
Witch burning could be viewed as a historical curiosity, except a society repeats its history – until it learns from it. To quote Martin Amis from his book about Joseph Stalin: “Before humanity can move forward, all crimes against itself must be given their day in the sun, their victims mourned, and proper conclusions drawn.” We have not yet properly mourned these women, instead, we demean them, make them old and ugly—figures of fun.
Anxious because we are living in a time of rapid social change with an uncertain future, many people look to the past for solutions, which won’t work, because our past actions have created our present dilemma. When the Christian right gained political power, it is no coincidence that they started another “crusade” in the Middle East and brought back torture, including water boarding, an Inquisition favorite.
If Hispanic advocacy groups can object to an “alien” Halloween costume, perhaps the AARP can object to portraying elderly women as scary, ugly, old crones. Or, when you see a child wearing a witch’s costume, or hear a conservative talk show host demonizing feminists for wanting equal rights, you might remember a time when “bitches,” my mistake, I must have meant “witches,” were for burning.
