Merry Christmas, everyone, from The Portly Politico!
Here’s wishing everyone a day of Christmas cheer and merriment with family and friends.
While opening those gifts, don’t forget the reason for the season: the Birth of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Christ Is King!
Merry Christmas!
—TPP
The dust has settled and Halloween 2024 is in the books. Now we’ve arrived at the holiday that Halloween—All Hallows’ Eve—is actually about: All Saints’ Day.
Growing up Pentecostal, we did not really celebrate or observe these major feast days (frankly, I’m surprised we celebrated Halloween growing up, but I think that’s because of my Stephen King-loving mother). We missed out on a great deal of the beauty of the high church liturgical calendar as a result.
All Saints’ Day and its close companion, All Souls’ Day (observed on 2 November) are two beautiful solemnities worth observing for all Christians. While I believe that all saved Christians count among God’s “saints,” and I don’t think the Roman Catholic Church holds a monopoly on canonization (or that canonization is even a legitimate spiritual designation), I do appreciate the celebration of the lives of the saints. They were inspiring Christians, often because they were such fallen sinners themselves before receiving Christ’s Grace.
I do believe they performed miracles through the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe such miracles are still possible. Sure, there’s probably some literary license taken with some of the saints, but I can’t deny the possibility of miracles; Scripture is full of them!
As a doughy American Evangelical Protestant I realize I am out of my depth here among the Anglicans and Catholics that read this blog, but I hope it is clear that I appreciate the richness of your traditions. All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days are worthy of celebration; all Christians should honor these days with prayer and feasting.
Maybe it’s the feasting that I like. Let’s see how I do with the days that call for prayer and fasting. Gulp!
One final coda: my recent release, Spooky Season III, ends with a piece called “Eleventh Hour and All Saints’ Day“; it’s two pieces in one. The hymn-like chorale “All Saints’ Day” kicks in around 4:30:
I wanted to capture the transition from the quiet solitude of a post-trick-or-treating Halloween night into the glorious morning of All Saints’ Day. I hope this humble piece did the trick.
Happy All Saints’ Day!
—TPP
Pickup my newest release: Spooky Season III! Use promo code spooky to take an additional 20% off all purchases on Bandcamp! Code expires at 11:59 PM UTC on Thursday, 31 October 2024—TONIGHT!
At long last, it’s here—Halloween! Regular readers know that I love Halloween (perhaps a bit too much). The season always seems to fly by, though, no matter how hard I try to cling to every pumpkin-spiced moment.
Yours portly was disgracefully late with putting up my decorations this year, but I’ll likely be disgracefully late taking them down, too; it’s not unheard of for me to be heading into Thanksgiving Week with a rotting Jack O’Lantern still festooning my slug-infested porch.
Speaking of, here’s a look at the Jack O’Lantern while still fresh; I did a very thorough job of scraping and scooping the little guy of his gooey innards, so he’s holding up a bit better this year:
If that dubious knife play doesn’t get you excited for Halloween, perhaps these classic Halloween posts will.
With that, here is 2 November 2024’s “TBT^4: Happy Halloween!“:
The Portly Politico 