We are half way through! I have a lot of the shopping done but still need to get a few gifts and this week we need to make some cookies!!! I also have a few sewing projects to do as well--want to make some gifts for friends.
The song above is one of our favorite Christmas carols. We changed the words to fit for Advent because naturally we think of it when it is Gaudete Sunday! The words of the original chorus of this medieval Christmas carol are:
Gaudete! Gaudete! Christus est natus ex Maria virgine. Gaudete! Rejoice! Rejoice! Christ is born of the Virgin Mary. Rejoice!
For advent we changed them to:
Gaudete! Gaudete! Christus naturus ex Maria virgine. Gaudete! Rejoice! Rejoice! Christ will be born of the Virgin Mary. Rejoice!
Tomorrow is the feast of St. Lucy. It is a big deal in many countries and I have always admired the various traditions surrounding this beautiful day. My children particularly love the story of St. Lucy's bravery and how she endured such tortures as losing her eyes all for the love of God. I still have not gotten any of them to have fake eyeballs on a plate for Halloween though. I think it is really important to tell the stories of the martyrs even though they are gruesome. Some might shy away from tales of saints dying horrible deaths but I really believe it helps them understand the depth of the love we should have for God (and the depth of the love he had for us!). It also encourages bravery in the face of the many little trials they encounter in life. And if God sees fit, it will inspire them in the face of any great trials they encounter.
The most famous celebrations on St. Lucy's day come from Sweden. Most people are familiar with the image of a young girl dressed in white with a wreath of candles on her head. There is something so magical and whimsical about it! Someday perhaps, when I decide to buy an authentic Swedish wreath, I will start such a tradition. For now I feel too far removed from the customs of Sweden to start this at my house. There are so many celebrations at this time of year that I need to keep things simple. I would not dream of leaving out her feast day though so we have our own little way of celebrating.
St. Lucy's name means light and that theme is an integral part of the celebration of her feast all over the world. So for us it seems the perfect time to go out and look at Christmas lights! It is convenient because most people take their Christmas lights down immediately after Christmas day (when...ahem...they should just be getting started with festivities) and we never feel like we fully get to enjoy them. By celebrating the feast of St. Lucy we are able to enjoy them with purpose even though we are right in the middle of Advent. This year we will go see the Light Parade in town which happens to fall on St. Lucy's day. I am packing cookies and hot chocolate and plenty of coats and blankets. Before heading out to the parade we will read the story of St. Lucy. I might, just might, wake the children to a candlelit breakfast and read the story then.
If you have not planned anything for the feast of St. Lucy why not read the story of her life and go to a light parade? Or zoolights? Or if you don't have a light parade tomorrow, hop in the car with travel mugs of hot cocoa and drive through the best neighborhood Christmas lights you can find!
The feast of St. Nicholas is always so fun! The children hung their stockings the night before and awoke to a decorated mantle, adorned with a statue of St. Nicholas, gingerbread cookies, and goodies inside their stockings. Usually I keep the stockings pretty simple.
Here is a list of what I include in each stocking:
1. An ornament.
2. A small toy or two.
3. Gold chocolate coins to remind them of the generosity of St. Nicholas.
4. Candy canes because St. Nicholas was a bishop.
5. Mandarin organges because they are in season and taste good.
6. Something to wear on Christmas (like a hair bow or a tie).
This year our stockings were lovingly made by my mom. She even made us extra so the next babies can have matching stockings! It was really sweet of her. There were aprons too that she made for our cookie making this advent. They are seen hanging behind the stockings. Despite having stayed up until 3am baking a birthday cake and the cookies and then stuffing stockings, I think it turned out all right and the children surely enjoyed the day.
In order to write this post I must admit something that may raise a few eyebrows...I watch the series The Walking Dead. There I said it. Yes, it is grotesque. Yes I watch a good portion on mute because I cannot stand the gargling zombie sounds. Yes I look away or even read blog posts during particularly bloody scenes (which is 3/4 of the show). And YES it irritates me to no end that these loud and clumsy zombies are always sneaking up on everyone...come on people, these are not exactly stealth ninjas you're dealing with here. But there is something I really like about the show. It helps me reflect on the current state of humanity. And if I am being 100% honest, the story just kind of sucked me in.
Recently, while watching the show, it occurred to me that the world that is depicted in The Walking Dead is not so different from the real world, at least in an allegorical sense. I do not think a zombie apocalypse is coming, but in a certain sense I think the zombie apocalypse is now.
In the show society has collapsed. People are isolated and community is very rare. The un-dead roam about the world seeking human flesh and converting the living into horrible ungodly eating machines. The people who survive are unsure of whether they should show mercy and maintain a sense of humanity or treat everyone as an enemy and give up on compassion and civility. Cannibalism among the living has cropped up as resources are scarce and people have become desensitized to the horror. There is widespread distrust and a near complete loss of hope.
Is it just me? Can you see the allegory? As we approach Thanksgiving and the infamous Black Friday we have a perfect illustration of what I am talking about. Go ahead and watch it on mute it is mostly just gurgling and screaming.
This is what we encounter more and more these days. Perhaps not always stampedes. But the spirit is the same. Black Friday is simply when we see it en masse. The zombie virus? Sin. Sure it has always been around. But by and large society has ignored its existence and we are suffering the consequences. With so much of the world cutting itself off from the grace of God they walk around as undead, little more than consuming machines. There is little care for one's neighbor. In general the people that are still holding on to some notion of decency have a sense of distrust and an every-man-for-himself-mentality is creeping into their hearts. In the show the zombies pursue human flesh no matter the consequences. They do not reason, they do not love. So too today people pursue their own pleasure regardless of the damage they cause to themselves or others (see clip above). I was on the phone with someone the other day about a medical bill that had been missed by my insurance. The man was rude and talked to me without compassion or care. I tried to remain calm and collected but I was simply shocked at his inability to see me as a person with a real problem that he had the power to help me with. It was that conversation that inspired me to write this post.
Now I know you are probably thinking this does not seem an appropriate post for a blog called Our Merry Little Way. And you are right, it isn't really merry or bright to say we are living a zombie apocalypse. It is cynical and kind of a bummer. And my allegory has plenty of holes. Thankfully one of those holes is that our current zombie apocalypse is very different in an important aspect and that makes things a little less bleak: the un-dead we encounter can be healed and the antidote is readily available in the sacraments.
*UPDATE: I am not sure I can continue watching the show. I really have enjoyed it but it seems that the longer it goes on the more grotesque it is going to get. I realize they need to keep viewers interested but the character drama that made the show so interesting to me before is getting thin and the show is more and more about the gore (which has never been lacking). We will see if this next season can provide some redemption. For any zombie show fans out there I thought Z Nation was kind of a fun one. It is a bit more low-budget but it has a comedic element that I thought was refreshing. Season 1 is online but I am not sure they are continuing with a season 2 so watch at your own risk because season 1 gives absolutely no closure.
Yesterday we decorated for Halloween, We went to the the local Grocery Outlet where jumbo pumpkins were just 3.99 and got the biggest pumpkins we could fish out of the bins. I am all for a wonderful pumpkin patch experience but I would rather spend my money at the farm buying organic produce to nourish our bodies rather than pay $0.59/lb. for a pumpkin we will just throw away. It does not have to be an ethically-raised, pesticide and hormone free, free-range pumpkin to sit on my porch and rot.
But all budgeting aside the real focus of this post is that this year is the first year I have felt it important to decorate for Halloween. It is not just Halloween but also All Saints Day and All Souls Day we are decorating for. But this year I am allowing a little more of the spooky and the macabre in our decorations.
I have been doing quite a bit of reading the past few months on the traditional Catholic customs surrounding All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day. The result of all that research is the conclusion that a healthy acknowledgment of death, as well as a firm confidence in the happiness of heaven and the protection of the angels are good things. All Hallows Eve is Catholic. It is not pagan. In our house we have always celebrated on All Saints Day with costumes and a party. I am not saying that should not be done. All Saints Day is the main event afterall. But Halloween customs such as going door-to-door for candy dressed up in costumes can be a good thing too and have their roots in catholic customs. I am allowing the children to trick or treat this year and they may go dressed as saints, doctors, astronauts, princesses or even Catrinas (a la Mexican Day of the Dead). But they may not go as happy little green witches, immodestly dressed anything, psycho killers or anything else that glorifies evil or downplays its existence. There is a big difference between acknowledging and even poking fun at death a bit and glorifying evil. And the condition for getting all that candy is that they pray for those who give it to them including their dead relatives.
The Halloween customs we have in the US are a wonderful and rich combination of Irish, French, Spanish, and English customs. What we have now is a uniquely American day but a very Catholic American day. The idea that the whole thing is merely a pagan holiday is something, oddly enough, made up by protestants who were uncomfortable with Catholicism and a sacramental view of the world. That is not to say I do not believe that pagan people do bad things on Halloween. I am the first to agree that Halloween has become a very disgusting excuse for all things perverse. But those who wish to behave badly will always find an excuse. I think the issue is more historically complex and nuanced. I want to take back Halloween as the vigil before All Saints Day. It is a perfect time to pray for the dead, to acknowledge the reality of evil and of death, to bolster the confidence of my children in the protection of the saving grace of God that they enjoy as children of God, and though as a vigil it should be somewhat penitential, it is a perfect time to have a bit of fun in the cool autumn night and to reflect on the seasons and the happiness we have in the saints in heaven.
