Hallow's Eve

This marks a return to blogging, after an Instagram detour - our foray into social media had mixed results. Initially a concession to Michael's felt need to relate to peers, it quickly devolved, as the desire for attention moved center stage; felt contrived somehow.  Following entities  - Disney, websites, individuals 2x removed - showed how quickly the lives of children were integrated into imnpersonal social space and ad cycles.

Anyway, I give you our Minion!and Zorro!  Michael never saw the shows before; the cape and mask were key.

Carolyn dressed as a Ratatouille chef!

Our Halloween affairs have been low-key affairs: mummy dogs!

Graveyard dip. Father?son nerds.

The mathematician taking inventory.

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Reformation Day, All Saints' Day, and All Hallow's Eve fall on roughly the same day, though celebrated discretely.  Scaring spooks as a victory high-5 for believers 1000 years ago reclaims - in theory - the old practice, but its mostly just about candy and scary decor.  That case of Noh dolls in the above photo - a medieval form of theater with direct links to Japanese Buddhism - is curiously in the background, gjven that many Noh plays similarly invoke spirits as a rebuke, trying to rid the present of unwanted ghosts needing to continue their journey in the afterlife.

Still, the revolving door of pagan-Christian-pagan-Christian traditions each coopting each other's practices makes the mind spin.

And given the change in church practice this fall - we are now meeting at a sister congregation in Santa Clarita 40 minutes away - the rhythm of the church calendar is at once familiar, even as a particular church becomes distant and strange.  Congregations, seasons, cultural iconography - all seem to be in motion.