This is me, Eccles

This is me, Eccles
This is me, Eccles

Tuesday 31 October 2017

October 31st - trick or treat?

Yes, it's October 31st 2017, commonly called Hallowe'en, the day when people dress up in scary costumes and annoy their neighbours.

Martin Luther

Trick or treat? The sign should stay up by faith alone, but Brother Martin decided otherwise.

Everyone's joining in the fun, and remembering their favourite German heretic (no, not Cardinal Marx).

Pope and Choco-Luther

Pope Francis with the Choco-Luther. "You may find this hard to swallow..."

Of course the Anglicans didn't get in on the Hallowe'en larks until almost twenty years later, and indeed, Henry VIII, the man whose ideas on marriage ("divorce 'em, or if that doesn't work, behead 'em") anticipated Amoris Laetitia, was severely critical of Luther's pranks.

Henry VIII

It's believed that the pumpkin theme was based on Henry VIII's fat head.

Originally, Hallowe'en was called All Saints' Eve - Henry VIII approached Thomas More and said, "Great news, Thomas, you're going to become a saint! Better still, a saint and martyr!" Of course Thomas More was delighted to be joining in the fun.

Anyway, back to Luther, who founded the tradition, stimulating a growth in heresy that Arius and Fr James Martin could only dream of. Let's party!

Martin Luther costume

Put on your scary costumes, and get trick-or-treating!

5 comments:

  1. I got one of those chocolate Luther statues.
    It was sheer indulgence.

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  2. I had a number of trick or treaters knocking on my door tonight,many of the little cherubs masquerading in clerical garb!
    Little Jinny Merton plumped for a bag of rainbow drops,although he was tempted by the bags of tootie fruities and skittles. Little wally caspar insisted on a milky bar as he said his delicate constitution could only handle white chocolate. Gerry Muller went for a flake, and a naughty little scamp called tiny spidero snaffled a bar of whole nut! Their chum Missimo figgoli scoffed all the jelly beans and a rather rotund chappy called rhinehard merx gobbled 2 tonnes in chocolate gold coins!! The scariest crew I've ever encountered!

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  3. I wanted to get Luther's letter to the rabbi of Wittenberg but it was just an epistle of straw

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  4. That first picture caption.... 🤣

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  5. Hello, Bruvver. It’s been nearly a fortnight since we last heard from you. You don’t usually keep mum for such a long time. Nothing wrong, I hope.
    Regards to Bosco and Anti.
    Ray

    ReplyDelete