Volume CXXXIII, Number 6 October 19, 2001 f

Celebrations and reflections
GENEVIEVE CREEDON

My mother told me yesterday that she wasn't going to decorate our house for Halloween this year. Some people might say that it's not such a big deal. Lots of people don't decorate, but in the past, Halloween has been a really big day for us. We would start several weeks ahead of time making bags filled with anything my mother could find on the shelves of every store she visited.

Our street has always been very popular with Trick-or-Treat goers of all ages. Even if my mother made 300 bags, they were invariably gone within a matter of two short hours, if not less. We would have dinner on that night in the dining room, all of us in costume, ready to run to the door when it rang.

We have a laughing witch who stands right outside our door every year, projecting her infernal laughter that drives me crazy for the two or three weeks that she is plugged in. Every year I swear that she will not be plugged in, and every year, her laughter returns. That is, until now.

Instead, our door will be adorned with a note, informing visitors that we have not decorated the house, nor bought candy, because of the events of the past month and a half. As my mother explained her reasoning, I cringed, thinking that the worse thing we can do is let the tragedy reach our spirits.

While my family may not observe Halloween this year, I know we will celebrate Thanksgiving, and I can't help but wonder what the great difference is. It would seem that now is a perfect time to celebrate Halloween, which is, after all, a descendent of a religious festival for the dead.

I suppose the difference rests in the fact that people don't usually consider the history of Halloween as part of its celebration. To children and parents everywhere, it is simply a time to go get dressed up, go out with friends and acquire as much candy as possible. It should be more than that.

Right now is the start of the festive season, as the leaves are turning and falling, as it gets darker earlier, as we start looking for those sweaters. Even if celebration seems almost out of place, we owe it to ourselves and to all those who have died and suffered to carry on the spirit, whether we are Christian, Jewish, Muslim or pagan.

We ought to celebrate, but not with same merry carelessness that has become quite characteristic of this season. It should be a time during which we enjoy being together, sharing memories and traditions, but it is only appropriate that we spend even more time reflecting on our lives and places in this world.

In her column in the New York Times last week, Maureen Dowd proclaimed that the terrorists are "trying to drag us back to the Middle Ages." I'd like to suggest that they haven't taken us that far. Our present concerns seem to have more of a semblance with the Baroque- the irregularity and prevalence of a seemingly unconquerable tension of opposites. We want our lives to return to normalcy, but at the same time, we don't really think they can.

We would best be served, I think, in listening to those two different pulls, and adopting as ours the Baroque period's two favorite sayings "carpe diem" and "momento mori"- seize the day, but remember that you must die. We have to maintain a strong enthusiasm for life, without forgetting just how vulnerable we are. In the union of opposites, we can find a common balance that will set the proper tone for the future.