"I was going through the aisle of evil and trying not to see the hoochie girl-devil costumes for toddlers, when the blinking purple lights caught my attention, and I thought, hey, Maranatha! Advent is coming!
So I thought, if it's coming anyway, why not turn Halloween into pre-advent?" mused Gallagher.
If you go by Gallagher's home this evening, you'll see the house draped in purple lights, a pumpkin hallowed out into an advent wreath, and speakers blaring out "O Come O Come Emmanuel."
"I'm looking forward to it," enthused Gallagher. "I plan to tell the little kiddies that this bag of skittles is the first treat of their pre-advent calendar. And to repent of what they are wearing before they go to hell."
One church leader, who asked to speak off the record, mentioned that while it was good that people were avoiding the lack of modesty and glamorizing evil issues with secular Halloween, rushing into advent may be an overreaction. "I'm not sure liturgically you can have a pre-pre-Christmas season," he said. "Plus, it's all Saints Day, which deserves it own day, right?"
Gallagher said she knew she would have detractors, but she didn't care. "The purple lights were too good to pass up. I know there are orange lights on sale too, but I wanted to leave something for the Tibetan Buddhists in my neighborhood. Pre-advent makes me charitable like that. Happy Pre-Advent to you all!"
--IC
***
p.s. People can do or not do Halloween as they wish, and if you do it, there are better and worse ways. I recommend Fr. Grunow's Let's Reclaim Halloween myself.
1 comment:
Ha! Now just to find a few pink ones to go with the purple and put these on the door wreath for real advent.
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