Taking a page from your book, I submit the following...
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French Catholics Attack Halloween
By BRIAN ROHAN 10/31/2002 16:31:51 EST
PARIS (AP) - Halloween in France took a new twist Thursday, with the Catholic
Church sending protesters into Paris and launching a campaign with rock music to
refocus attention on All Saints' Day - a religious holiday that falls a day after
Halloween.
Television talk shows turned their attention to the subject. Bakeries passed out fliers
about the holiday's patron saints, and a small group of protesters gathered outside
Planet Hollywood on the Champs-Elysees to denounce the Halloween-mania.
Arnaud Guyot-Jeannin, president of "The No to Halloween Collective" was quoted in Le
Parisien newspaper as saying his group was comprised of Christians opposed to the
commercialism of Halloween, in which "the monstrous and the ugly is exalted."
The Rev. Benoist de Sinety of the Paris diocese said the main issue was not the
domination of American culture or globalization.
"We wanted to take the occasion to get people to reflect on something more profound
than Halloween - the meaning of life," he said.
According to the church, Halloween comes at the expense of All Saints' Day, which
falls a day later and is celebrated in this majority Catholic country as a religious
holiday and a day for families to pay respects to their ancestors by visiting cemeteries.
The Catholic Church has taken the lead in creating a variety of activities it hopes will
distract from the costumes and trick-or-treating.
The Diocese of Paris - clearly targeting French youth - has organized a night of rock,
reggae and R&B concerts to be held Halloween night in the square in front of
Saint-Sulpice Church, which will be kept open all night to take confessions.
The church has also begun selling kits to bakers around France that include a "secret
recipe" for an All Saints' Day cake. The bakery is instructed to sell the cake at a lower
price than other pastries.
The issue was turned into a debate on all-day cable news channel LCI on Thursday,
which took callers opinions on the topic: "For or Against Halloween?"
One caller called it a form of "American colonization," while another said she was
alarmed at how quickly Halloween had taken root in France.
Only five years ago, store windows this time of year bore no trace of pumpkins and
skeletons. Today, Paris is wrapped in witches' cloaks in the weeks leading up to
Halloween.
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On the Net:
gateaudelatoussaint.com
catholique-paris.cef.fr |
