The “Day of the Dead” is looming, with all the macabre symbolism of the season. I usually enjoy my daily walk through my residential neighborhood, but in the past few days the scene has changed as giant spiderwebs and partially buried skeletons appear on manicured lawns. Leering skulls with lighted eye sockets peer from simulated graveyards, and a variety of monsters in various stages of decay, some with creepy sound effects, set the tone for the October 31 celebration of “Hallowe’en.”

The word “hallowed” means made holy or consecrated. There is nothing hallowed in the celebration of Halloween.

Like some other holidays that originated in paganism but are celebrated by “Christian” churches today—albeit with new names—Halloween also marched right out of pagan religious practices and into mainstream religion. New labels were applied to centuries-old trappings, traditions, and celebrations from the pagan world, and these practices continued to be observed on or around the same time of the year.

“Marauding feral pigs have blighted a central suburb in New Zealand’s capital, killing kid goats at an urban farm, intimidating dogs and turning up in residents’ gardens” (The Guardian, September 26, 2022). One goat milk dairy farmer lost 60 goat kids to rampaging pigs, and the pigs ate everything but the large bones of the goats. The feral pigs are descendants of those brought to the island by colonists in the 1700s.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently vowed his nation would never abandon nuclear weapons (Wall Street Journal, September 9, 2022). His comments accompanied new North Korean legislation authorizing its military to launch a nuclear strike “if an imminent attack against the country’s strategic targets, including its leadership, is detected” and allowing for the future use of automated systems to launch such strikes. U.S.

Has someone ever “opened your eyes” to some surprising information you were completely unaware of, or something someone had deceived you about? Or, perhaps, they challenged some long-held belief you had that proved to be incorrect. Maybe you have tried to wake up someone else to the truth about a matter.