Circled Lots

In honor of something I wrote in October because I obviously exist out of the temporal chronology that y'all are trapped in.

You have two lots a year: One is to spend all year prepping your soul for Yom Kippur. And the other is to spend it prepping your liver for Purim. Or at least your heart of joy.

So often Purim and Halloween are lumped together. Sure, they are celebrated with costumes and punishing my bad, bad liver but there's so much more going on. This year, I read a few disparaging articles about Jews participating in Halloween. It's hard because I was raised Catholic with a side of New Age Pagan and Halloween was a Big. Fucking. Deal. and a little religious.

If I had to rank holidays growing up:

1: Halloween; 2: Xmas; 3: maybe Easter?; 4: St. Patty's

I'm not belittling dressing up. It's magical in the Spring and in the Autumn. I love going to the bar with a raccoon and a zombie and I also love watching Katy Perry (aka my rabbi) tell me an ancient tale of feminine heroism. And what a joyous, happy story. That's not Halloween. Halloween is in the horror and death. One of the articles stated that Halloween doesn't express “Jewish Values.” They don't know from Halloween. And they apparently completely forgot the other day of pur: Yom Kippur—the second the shofar sounded and the gates closed.

The whole encapsulation of Horror isn't meant to be gore-porn. It's meant to help us confront death. The infatuation with spirits is the burning question of “what's next?” It's almost like at Yom Kippur literally prepare for death because of thses same reasons. We confront death so it doesn't rule our lives (Dying Gates). And the Celtic predecessor Samhain (''sowen'') marks the New Year, followed by several days when the world is in chaos. Hmm, what other new year is followed by days of unknowing before a celebration/exploration of mortality?

The world can be dark, and for a few months will be. So no matter how we dress, we will meet that challenge head-on. We will not be robbed our light in the darkness. #WinterIsComing #LightFestivalsAreComing