MY Post-Halloween Catholic Costume

 

Holy Day of Obligation?

Early November is a busy time for RC hagiography. Today, Nov. 1, in the Roman Catholic ecclesiatical calendar, is "All Saints' Day," the antithesis of "Hallowe'en" when the unquiet dead are said to move about. "All Saints' Day" celebrates the quiescent, honored departed, who gained Heaven on the first try.. There are literally uncounted/ uncountable THOUSANDS of them, many martyred, who come in for hagiographic attention. The next day on All Souls' Day (Nov. 2) all the departed are remembered.

Nov. 1's also the anniversary of the first time, of many, I was ever sent home from school.

In Cleveland, OH, in the suburbs of which I grew up in the 50s, children in Roman Catholic schools were encouraged to attend school on Nov. 1 costumed as either their favorite, or their namesake, "Saint." In my case, there are LOTS of "Saints John:" Chrysostom; Damascrne, Revelator, the Baptist, etc. There are literally dozens of 'em. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_John)

But my father decided my "patron Saint" would be "John, the Baptist," who was martyred by being decapitated at the whim of the Babylonian whore, Salome.

So, that year (3rd Grade), my father--who had a mordant sense of humor to go along with an agnostic sensibility--decided to send me to school as St. John, the Baptist's HEAD.

He got a large, aluminum, baking dish, cut out a hole in it for my head, slipped it around my neck (after dulling the edge), wrapped the rest of me in a "blood-stained" sheet, and off I went.

And back I came.

With a harsh note from the parish priest about blasphemy.