Halloween

06:30 Hrs. Dzisiaj straszy. 6-stopniowo i lekka mzawka. W Polskim Radiu Toronto na fali 1320 AM Czerwone Gitary przypominaja, ze dzisiaj jest dozwolone do lat osiemnastu. Rzeczywiscie Halloween to swieto dzieci do 18, a tym bardziej tych dzieci po 18. ESSO, Canadian Tire, Petro Canada biora z rana za litr paliwa $0.81.7. Beaver $0.81.5.

Obok swiat Bozego Narodzenia Halloween jest najbardziej wyczekiwanym swietem w Ameryce. Ciekawe, ze ten poganski celtycki festiwal zadomowil sie tak w chrzescijanskiej cywilizacji.

Boo! Is Halloween too scary? (BBC NEWS - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6099008.stm).

Academics discuss history of Halloween

MEETING With delegates dressed up as witches, ghosts and ghouls singing and telling jokes, it won't be a typical academic conference when 200 professors gather today in Scotland to discuss the history of Halloween.
The two-day meeting in Glasgow will focus on how a traditional Celtic festival became a monster global commercial event worth billions of dollars.
ASSOCIATED PRESS (METRO, Tuesday, October 31, 2006).

POLAND: GOD IS MY DRINKING BUDDY

A new Polish Catholic book of prayers includes one that asks God to prevent teens from talking trash while drunk: "Lord, if in an unsober state, and under the influence of those around me, I say something stupid, please give me strength to retract my words. Protect me against senseless bravado and pride." The prayer sparked a furor, but its author, a Dominican monk, stands by it, saying, "This book will make it easier for young people to meet with God" (MACLEAN'S NOV. 6 '06).

- Mam problem, wiem, ze masturbacja jest zla i chcialbym sie z tego wyspowiadac, ale nie wiem, jak powiedziec to spowiednikowi, jakimi slowami, prosze o pomoc, z gory dziekuje.
Odpowiedz:
Powiedz dokladnie tak, jak napisales. Dodaj, ile razy...

- Chcialbym zapytac, czy zblizenie, przy ktorym nie doszlo do wytrysku w ciele kobiety i poza nim, to tez stosunek przerywany?
Odpowiedz:
Nie. Tego rodzaju zachowanie mozna uznac za sytuacje, w ktorej malzonkowie poniechali wspolzycia. Maja do tego prawo... ("Wiara - pytania i odpowiedzi", GOSC NIEDZIELNY - www.wiara.pl, GONIEC, 13-19 pazdziernika 2006).

Halloween

Our Halloween rituals are relics of the pagan All Hallows Eve, the original night-time festival according to the lunar calendar, preceding the solar-calendar daytime version that was Christianized as "All Saints." The festival used to be the Feast of the Dead (Celtic Samhain, or Vigil of Saman). It was perhaps the most important of the cross-quarter days, when the "crack between the worlds" could open up and let the spirits pass through. Therefore the ghosts of dead ancestors could revisit the earth, join their descendants at the feast, and give necromantic interviews and omens. In Ireland, all the sidh or fairy hills (grave mounds) were said to open up for the occasion. Folks insisted that it was impossible to keep the fairies underground on Halloween.
Since these "fairies" were simply pagan spirits, the church naturally insisted that demons were abroad on Halloween, summoned by witches, which was the usual term for the ancient pagan priestesses whose business it was to communicate with the dead.
Halloween trick-or-treat customs descended from a belief that the family dead would bring gifts or goodies to the children during their temporary return from the other world. Gifts, food, and sweets were always the standard method of attracting children's attention to religious holidays, as is still shown by our own Christmas and Easter customs. Thus, "the dead relations have become the good fairies of the little ones." Black cats, owls, bats, and broomsticks were the familiar spirits and tools commonly associated with witches, who retained a dominant position in the Feast of the Dead despite the church's attempt to assimilate it in honor of its own canon of saints (Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols & Sacred Objects").