Part 7 of an 8 part series
. Trunk or Treat .
Halloween gets a bad rap from certain fundamentalist segments of America.
I attended a sermon one night about Halloween that was scarier then trick-or-treating
could ever be. The preacher’s daughter regaled us with tales of human
sacrifice. I listened as she gave a hackneyed account of ancient Druids. I
cringed as she mispronounced the word Samhain. It was all I could do to sit
quietly in my seat. If you look far back enough into history I’m sure
you can always find something evil that stinks. My Halloween smells like sweets
and sounds like screams. Since this particular church had all but declared
war on the pagan heresy of All Hallows Eve, what did they offer as replacement?
It was something called trunk or treat.
On Wednesday
nights of Halloween week, the church has its own alternative to Halloween.
Parishioners are asked to decorate the trunk of their car or the back of their
trucks with Bible scenes. As kids file past the scenes they are given candy.
The teenagers take over part of the gym and put on their version of a “Hell
House”, which is where nasty real life situations are acted out to try
and steer kids toward right behavior. I’m all for good behavior, but
the heavy handedness of these little morality plays reminds me of the South
Park episode where Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman started smoking because
of how stupid an anti-smoking group acted during an assembly. The really interesting
part of trunk or treat is the Bible scenes and the trick-or-treaters.
There are always the big ones you’d expect. Noah’s Ark is always
popular. The last supper is another one. The crucifixion scenes are usually
numerous and sometimes very grotesque. One very large married couple last
year dressed as Samson and Delilah. They pretty much groped each other the
whole time which was one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen. Barbie
dolls were everywhere - there were Barbie Mary’s and Ken’s with
magic marker beards playing the roles of Jesus, wise men, prophets, and Moses
to name just a few. The devil usually figures prominently in many scenes.
It’s not just cheesy tableaus filled with toys; many people go all out
for these displays with fog machines, special lighting effects, and the best
of all - a truck bed converted to a whale that spurted water while a person
playing Jonah relaxed in its belly. This is surreal to see, but it gets even
better when you take the time to watch the trick-or-treaters.
The whole
community is invited to the event and kids should wear costumes. Ones that
don’t attend the church usually wear what they are going out in on Halloween.
So there are plenty of witches, monsters, and current popular cartoon characters
begging for candy. That’s not all that interesting. What is fascinating
are the kids that go to this church. They dress up as Biblical characters.
It’s as if somebody took the Muppet Babies concept and applied it to
real life: Bible Babies! There’s barely a trace of ancient Druidic harvest
festival at this event, though the Biblical violence does bring a foreboding
aura.
Trunk or treat is actually kind of fun. I guess the Bible scenes might offend
some, but if that’s the case you shouldn’t be attending something
like this anyway. The church preaches brimstone and hellfire about Halloween,
but their candy is as good as the next person’s. I take my kids to trunk
or treat and I take them out on Halloween too. After all, the scariest thing
would be not getting any candy at all.
Part
8: The Dead Walk Among Us
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