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Guest column: Join us in celebrating All Hallows Eve, Halloween and Dia de los Muertos

El Cristo Rey Roman Catholic Chapel and St. Jude Spanish Catholic Community in Valle are joining efforts to celebrate All Hallows Eve, Halloween, and Dia de Los Muertos. The mass schedule at El Cristo Rey has been adjusted to help facilitate the event. There will be no 5:30 p.m. mass celebrated at El Cristo Rey Catholic Chapel at Grand Canyon Village on Oct. 29. Mass will be celebrated, however, in Valle to commemorate All Hallows Eve, Dia de Los Muertos, and the Halloween Extravaganza being organized by the local Catholic community.

We are hoping to give our community an opportunity to have an evening of enjoyment, while appreciating the roots of Halloween, which is founded in the Catholic Christian Church. Halloween is the word derived from All Hallows Eve which is traditionally October 31, the night before All Saints Day, Nov. 1, for which in the Catholic Church is a Holy Day of Obligation by which Catholics are required to attend mass.

All Hallows Eve has taken on a more secular twist with its ghosts and goblins, but in essence is a tradition teaching us about good and evil, and our mortality, the fact that we die. Death is a deep Christian mystery for which we become aware of how we constantly choose between good and evil in this world, knowing that our actions have eternal consequences.

Halloween is a distortion of the name All Hallows Eve that not only celebrates and marks the fact that as humans we die, but that we also rise in the hope of resurrection made possible by Jesus Christ. We therefore honor the saints and all those who are hallowed or holy. Many cultures including those from Irish or Mexican background have contributed to the celebration of Halloween over the centuries.

The Irish, coming out of medieval experience tends to be what has been passed onto the United States with witches and jack o' lanterns, both the remnant of a time gone by. The witch in folklore has always been the symbol of evil, and nature worship founded in the ancient druids of the Celtic world.

Jack o' lanterns are linked to Ireland as well, where on All Hallows Eve they would often carve faces into to the gourds to celebrate autumn and the dead by lighting them up with candles.

Jack o' lanterns took on more of an evolution when Irish immigrants came to the United States and began to use pumpkins for this purpose. The jack o' lantern can also be likened to inexpensive and easy to make gargoyles, as tradition holds, it too was used to ward off evil. The jack o' lantern can be placed on porches in windows, and on fence posts as was often the practice.

Christian tradition often used gargoyles as a means to teach about good and evil.

In Flagstaff, it is possible to see and appreciate gothic architecture founded in the Church of the Nativity. The Roman Catholic Church has been a Flagstaff mainstay for decades, and boasts actual gargoyles of dragonheads, which are replicate of those used in teaching during the Middle Ages. In this particular setting, they symbolize the warding off of evil as they would appear on many churches and cathedrals throughout Europe, and right in Flagstaff. They stand guard of good things, and in this case protect the church.

The Mexican culture also celebrates All Hallows Eve with Dia de Los Muertos, Day of the Dead. In the Catholic Church, celebrating those who have died before us is important. We believe in the Communion of Saints, so also acknowledge that we can pray for the deceased, and they in turn still can pray for us.

The saints are those marked by holy standards and canonized in the Church. They too are part of this communion that we honor on All Hallows Eve. For the celebration of Dia De Los Muertos, it is possible to see many immigrant families visiting the gravesides of loved ones, often bringing food, photos, and trinkets as gifts. Small altars are created in honor of the deceased with their photos enshrined with candles and gifts. The skeleton is a great symbol of Dia de Los Muertos as many children will wear costumes depicting death through the skeleton, and parade in the streets after attending mass. We invite all to participate.

Mass begins at 5 p.m. in Valle just behind the Chevron station in the residential area. The festivities began after mass. Our Halloween Extravaganza will host many games, bobbing for apples, pin the tail on the black cat, music, food, and fun. We encourage everyone to come in costume as there will be contests for the most wicked and most angelic or saintly.

It is by keeping in mind our traditions and practices that we hope to bring out the real meaning behind Halloween, while allowing everyone to join in the fun. All Saints Day is Nov. 1 and mass will be offered at El Cristo Rey on that same day at 12 p.m.

We are hoping that the many Catholic workers throughout Grand Canyon region will make time to come. Our intention to offer mass at noon is to permit those working to schedule mass around their lunch hours.


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