Holidays

Why is the mall decorated for Christmas in October?

Along with the witch in flight and grinning and jack-o-lantern, the black cat in full arched-back fright mode is among THE iconic symbols of Halloween. Even to this day, who doesn’t feel a little charge when a black cat streaks across one’s path, especially on Halloween? Cats have been variously worshiped or reviled throughout human history, but they have almost always been seen as magical and otherworldly.

Hocus Pocus has unexpectedly but perhaps inevitably become the consensus family favorite of the season nationwide. When it was released, bizarrely, in JULY of 1993, it was not a smash, was reviewed lukewarmly, and went on to generate a moderate $39.5 million ($65 million in 2015 dollars) at the box office.

This is the way to deal with masks that has worked for me: seek to identify myself as an individual expression of God’s goodness, which strips away masks or false identities.

Though it’s still very summery in much of the country, with the opening of a number of haunted attractions, costumes and candy overflowing shelves in stores, and spooky programming easing onto screens big and small, the Halloween season is upon us. Amidst the noisy, colorful pop cultural extravaganza that is contemporary Halloween in America, an element central to the extended history of Halloween — all the way back to the pre-Christian Celtic celebration of Samhain — has virtually been lost: the art of divination.

Despite all these other distractions, Memorial Day is still a necessary and compelling holiday to be celebrated with vigor.

As Mr. Obama recognized the Japanese losses at Hiroshima and the event that caused them, there is a resonance for Americans who are remembering their own losses this Memorial Day weekend.

Ten years and even ten more after that will not stop me from missing Mom; that is forevermore just like her love.

It is ironic but somehow fitting that St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, synonymous with all things Irish, when in fact he wasn’t even Irish. Patrick was born around A.D. 390 in Roman Britain to a wealthy family and led a life of casual privilege until he was kidnapped by raiders at the age of 16 and spirited away to Ireland, where he spent more than six windswept, chilly years as a slave tending sheep in the vicinity of Killala.

Spring break in Dublin, Mexico City, or Iceland? Absolutely! Here's why.