Halloween is the ultimate holiday of “pretending.”
On Halloween we dress up and “pretend” to be someone or something other than ourselves.
On Halloween we “pretend” to believe that the people jumping out at us and scaring us in the “haunted houses” we paid $25 to get into are monsters and zombies.
On Halloween we happily “pretend” that the scariest stuff in life are those things that “go bump in the night.”
On Halloween we revel in “pretend” bumps instead of bumping into the terrifying realities of evil and cruelty that appear on any street, in any office, at any school, in broad daylight, on any given day — and that’s just a rundown of the terrors of the last two weeks.
Yesterday, the day after “All Hallows Eve,” is known in the liturgical calendar as “All Saints Day.” “All Saints” i…