What to do about Halloween? It’s perhaps a relevant question in the U.S., but here in Mexico, well, the answer is pretty clear. It’s not a matter of deciding whether your kids should dress up and ask for candy. Here, the celebration of death is a serious event. An estimated 3 million Mexicans actually worship La santa muerte, or the Grim Reaper figure. Halloween is celebrated, followed by two days of the Day of the Dead, where people visit graveyards, and offer food and drink on a ceremonial table to their deceased family members. Really. Here’s what we did as a church last year, if you want to check it out. For more about the history and background of this creepiness, click HERE.
This year, both churches are doing different outreaches. The graphic below is a flyer that Samuel designed inviting people to a conference about, well, death. The title says, “We invite you to the conference entitled, Fear of Death…we invite you to come and confront one of your worst enemies.” The guest speaker is a tanatologa. New word for me! Basically that means a specialist or therapist on grieving and loss.
Can we take advantage of the darkness to share the Light? Absolutely. Death is not a friend, or a joke, or a personality. It is a reality that will usher each of us into an afterlife full of joy, or full of torment. Are you afraid of death? Should you be? You don’t have to be! Death has been conquered!
