Halloween's Tangled Religious Roots

Check out my Daily Beacon feature story on the religious origins of Halloween.

Here are the first few lines:

Marked primarily by costumes and candy in our culture, Halloween, seemingly in contrast to the way it is practiced now, has its roots in religious festivals, first from a pagan feast and later an infusion of pagan and Christian traditions.

Some of today’s practices carry over from the holiday’s ancient roots. Halloween’s religious overtones have evolved throughout the years, in some cases as a result of the dominant religion of the time and later in reaction to the seeming contradiction of celebrating a holiday with pagan roots within the context of Christianity.

Read the rest here.

The Veiling of Women in Early Christianity

My New Testament professor discussed this article in class today. It explains a possible reason for why women were required to wear veils in the Corinthian church established by Paul. Apparently the same word means both "veil" and "testicle."

Veil as Testicle in Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians

Three of the Seven Plays (in Seven Days)

I'm traveling to NYC in December with a group of UT students and a professor, and we'll be seeing seven plays in seven days. I'm excited to see these on- and off-Broadway plays, as well as to visit lots of museums and see NYC around Christmastime.

Here are the three plays that I already know we'll be seeing:
1. Superior Donuts
2. In The Next Room
3. Next to Normal

Saints' Lives ♥

"Of all the genres that survive from the Middle Ages, only the lives of the saints, arguably the richest in terms of extant records, are still treated by literary historians as documents for source studies (Quellenkritik) and little else. The genre has until recently fallen through the net of scholarly research, avoided by the historians because it lacks 'documentary' evidential status and by the literary historians because saints' lives are rarely works of art.

We live, moreover, in a pluralist age ruled by a post-Marxian secular materialism, in an age when fear of the avenging angel of the Lord has been replaced by fear of microorganisms. We have replaced the awe-full reverence for the Almighty with a minute examination of the specific. Microbes have replaced devils. Our literary language has followed this transference of belief. The leading theorists of the last twenty years, in both literary criticism and historiography, share two important methodological premises inherited from the logical-positivists: a skepticism of metaphysical inquiry and a disbelief in the ontological status of language. From this methodological vantage point, they argue that narrative is unable to reflect any reality other than its own. Their major premise which decisively veers from the mainstream of Western philosophical argument is that language—which they define as a rule-based system of mutually intelligible signs—cannot represent reality, for reality is itself a random series of unrelated discontinuities (i.e., is not rule-based). Language is a closed encoding system, and if it reveals anything about a 'reality' outside itself, that 'reality' is a fictive one. It is some considerable distance from this position to that wherein language is a vehicle for representing not only the 'things' of the material world but also the numinous presence (e.g., the scriptural λόγος). Augustine, Gregory, Bokenham or—even the proverbial medieval man on the street—all would affirm the ability of language and narrative to represent not only this world but the divine as well."

—Thomas Heffernan, Sacred Biography (1988)

Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson's album

Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson recently released a collaborative album, Break Up.



Listen to my favorite song from the album, Shampoo..

The Coen brothers' new film

This. looks. amazing. Cathleen Falsani has written a book (The Dude Abides, The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers) analyzing the spiritual themes of each of the Coen brothers' movies. I learned of this awesome new book from an article in the Salt Lake Tribune.

The release of Falsani's book also coincides with the Coens' new movie, A Serious Man, which is loosely based on the Biblical story of Job. I am sooo looking forward to seeing the movie. Unfortunately, the Oct. 2 U.S. release date is limited, and I have been unable to find any information about when the film will arrive in Tennessee — depressing.

According to the review I read, the film should live up to the high standards set by their other films, of which Fargo is my favorite. (My boyfriend's favorite is Burn After Reading, which is also excellent.)



For a glimpse of the new movie, check out the trailer.

Halloween costumes

Zooey's Halloween costume was purchased from Build-a-Bear. Unfortunately, as they were designed for a stuffed bear, the arm holes restrain his little legs. Thus, the costume will be returned, but it made for a good photo shoot.




I myself am thinking of being a female modernist poet of ambiguous sexuality (i.e. H.D.). What could be better than combining literature and '40s fashion? I'm not sure about the rest of the outfit; I'm really only in it for the birdcage veil, though I'm not sure that H.D. would have worn one.

Lord, I was born a rambling (wo)man

With a non-existent social life, confronted daily with the decision between food and homework, and with almost no time for relaxation of any sort, something has got to give. Several columns I've edited in the past week and a half have spoken to me more personally than usual. With admonitions to make time for activities other than professionally-related ones and advice from a graduate that all the stress and worry of college are baseless, I've definitely begun to reconsider my priorities. Basically everyone with whom I've discussed my insanely-packed life has told me something along the lines of "I don't know how you do it," and "Yeah, you should probably cut back on something next semester." A professor instructed me to consider which of my activities is really important to my future and to what I hope to gain from my college experience. I know I don't want to come out of college with a chronically sore back and that lasting look of exhaustion that friends seem to notice even when I feel more rested than usual. As painful as it is, I know that sometimes I have to let go of something, no matter how worthy a pursuit it might be, in order to improve my skills in another area and, hell, to actually allow myself a little free time. Just to clarify, time cannot be completely free unless it is completely separated from all thoughts of work left undone. That's something I've got to learn.

Also, while I feel that journalism serves an important service for the community, it doesn't seem to have nearly as positive an impact as actual volunteer community service. That's something I haven't really done in years, and I feel self-centered and self-serving for neglecting something as worthwhile as helping others. I'm afraid I've become too cynical. In thinking about community service and "mission" trips taken by church groups, I've often thought what good does one day or one week of picking up trash or cleaning someone's house really do? With mission work, people often go in with the mindset of what they, as the volunteer, will gain from the experience. That's not what it's about at all. It's about connecting with others and simply sharing in a common humanity. Next semester I plan to do some volunteer work. I want to quell this cynicism and see again the goodness of humanity in a simple act of kindness.

Look at me, adding yet another item to the to do list. I need to learn balance in my life, and to think about things in terms of the experience and not in terms of results. In that spirit, today I decided to take a Drama in New York class this December. I, along with 19 other students and a professor, will travel to NYC, attend seven plays, and keep a journal along the way. I'll also have free time to see the sights when we're not attending the theatre. AND the class doesn't count toward my major. I'm doing it because it should prove to be an exciting, enjoyable experience. Improvement, right?