Just Say Non to Halloween

The Church in France has had it up to here with Halloween, and is waging a campaign against it:

Halloween in France took a new twist Thursday, with the Catholic Church sending protesters into Paris and launching a campaign with rock music to refocus attention on All Saints' Day — a religious holiday that falls a day after Halloween.

Television talk shows turned their attention to the subject. Bakeries passed out fliers about the holiday's patron saints, and a small group of protesters gathered outside Planet Hollywood on the Champs-Elysees to denounce the Halloween-mania.

Arnaud Guyot-Jeannin, president of "The No to Halloween Collective" was quoted in Le Parisien newspaper as saying his group was comprised of Christians opposed to the commercialism of Halloween, in which "the monstrous and the ugly is exalted."

The Rev. Benoist de Sinety of the Paris diocese said the main issue was not the domination of American culture or globalization.

"We wanted to take the occasion to get people to reflect on something more profound than Halloween — the meaning of life," he said.

According to the church, Halloween comes at the expense of All Saints' Day, which falls a day later and is celebrated in this majority Catholic country as a religious holiday and a day for families to pay respects to their ancestors by visiting cemeteries.

The Catholic Church has taken the lead in creating a variety of activities it hopes will distract from the costumes and trick-or-treating.

The Diocese of Paris — clearly targeting French youth — has organized a night of rock, reggae and R&B concerts to be held Halloween night in the square in front of Saint-Sulpice Church, which will be kept open all night to take confessions.