Trick-or-Treat: Here's a candy and Gospel Tract!

[Emme]

Reading this makes me glad we live in southern New England where I've never encountered a religious tract in any setting, much less on Halloween. I think the local IFB churchgoers boycott Halloween entirely - they have a "harvest festival" in mid-October instead.

Yay New England, I'm here too!

I grew up in New York, and my mother would have shit a brick if I got a tract. She would have ripped someone a new one for trying to convert her Jewish kid.

[Megan]

My guess would be that the parents who asked for one for them were already a Christian. My guess is the family that took them for class was Christian and the class was probably at a Christian school. The child would not have been able to pass them out at our public school.

Around Christmas, one child at my daughter's elementary school wanted to pass out myrrh. His parents brought some back from a trip to Israel, one for each child. The teacher required the children to ask permission from their parents before they could receive the gift.

Maybe it's because my knowledge of myrrh is limited to Christmas carols, but it seems strange to give funeral incense to a group of children. "Myrrh is mine, it's bitter perfume/breathes a life of gathering gloom/suffering, sighing, bleeding, dying/locked in a stone cold tomb". Really?! Not quite elementary appropriate, even if it wasn't attached to a particular religion... Everyone wants a gift that represents their imminent death!

(I'm typing the song from memory, might be wrong)

[snarkbillie]

I feel like we should carry tracts and then when they try to slip one to our kids we should slip one to them. I have no idea what my tract would say. I would probably try to convert them to drinking tea or something.

[Megan]

(I just noticed my typo and I can't edit now... *"its bitter perfume" not it's. This is what I get for post-drink blog reading. Just want to clarify that I know the difference!)

[famof4]

Maybe it's because my knowledge of myrrh is limited to Christmas carols, but it seems strange to give funeral incense to a group of children. "Myrrh is mine, it's bitter perfume/breathes a life of gathering gloom/suffering, sighing, bleeding, dying/locked in a stone cold tomb". Really?! Not quite elementary appropriate, even if it wasn't attached to a particular religion... Everyone wants a gift that represents their imminent death!

(I'm typing the song from memory, might be wrong)

I might have mixed up frankincense and myrrh.It was several years ago she received it. It was one of the three kings gifts. The gift was given as Christmas gift. The teacher required parent permission because the tag the boy gave with the gift mentioned it was one of the presents the three kings brought to baby Jesus.

Which everone it was, it smelled awful. We though it straight into the trash.

[ILoveJellybeans]

Myrrh is a funeral incense???

What a strange gift for a new baby....

[famof4]

I might have mixed up frankincense and myrrh.It was several years ago she received it. It was one of the three kings gifts. The gift was given as Christmas gift. The teacher required parent permission because the tag the boy gave with the gift mentioned it was one of the presents the three kings brought to baby Jesus.

Which everone it was, it smelled awful. We though it straight into the trash.

Can't find the edit button.

Should read "Whichever one it was, it smelled awful. We threw it straight into the trash.

Major headache today must be interfering with my grammar and typing.

[Arete]

Myrrh is a funeral incense???

What a strange gift for a new baby....

Frankincense, myrrh, and gold were gifts for Kings in the ancient world. You could use the frankincense for religious ritual, it was the incense. Myrrh was a medicine as well as an embalming spice for the dead (it's gummy but can be liquified). All very costly, so the story of the Chaldeans giving it to Jesus was to forshadow a kingship.

NJ here, and I never got tracts trick or treating. However, I did take my niece trick or treating several years ago and she did wind up getting a tract slipped in. I was fit to be tied and destroyed it before she could read it. Whoever had done it had put in candy as well, because I was with her the whole time. The tract was probably hidden under the candy. I was really angry that it happened in a NJ neighborhood to my happy-go-lucky niece on MY WATCH.

[Megan]

While myrrh was something associated with wealth, as it was expensive, it was symbolic of death because it was used in funerals. At least that's what I always got out of CCE/homilies/Christmas carols referencing it. I was always taught that the gifts symbolized the life of Jesus - gold to mark him as king, frankincense as a gift to a God, myrrh for his impending death.

The expensive resins were symbolic as well. Frankincense, which was often burned, symbolized prayer rising to the heavens like smoke, while myrrh, which was often used for burials, symbolized death. Accordingly, a mixture of wine and myrrh would be offered to Jesus during his crucifixion. http://science.howstuffworks.com/enviro ... on2831.htm (not the best of sources, but whatever)

[Peas n carrots]

I got one or two as a kid, and I pretty much threw them out. If it wasn't chocolate, it wasn't worth my time.

I'd probably go back to David's house and get a stack just so I could go home an burn them.