According to an article which appeared in the The Times, a note has been distributed to Balzan households by the parish church,  launching a full-scale attack against the harmless yearly tradition  of Halloween.

The American custom of adults and children dressing up in macabre costumes, holding parties or going around their neighbourhood saying ‘trick or treat’ (basically asking for sweets) is celebrated each year on 31 October.

The tradition has caught on in Malta mainly due to cable TV, but according to the Balzan parish this holiday “celebrates a culture of death” and “attacks that which is holy”. The note then went on to claim that Halloween will inevitably lead children to more sinister practices such as “sadism, sexual violence, Satanism, torture, mutilation and strange killing”.

I think they’ve left something out…I’m pretty sure it’s Halloween which makes upright, morally sound journalists who are employed by a Church radio station resort to spying on their colleague, stealing her private emails, and passing them on to a political party for partisan motives.

Yes, that must be the only explanation…

UPDATE

According to the Malta Today, which published a scanned image,  the letter was circulated in Attard, with the author of the letter claiming to be writing on behalf of the Church with the phrase “Bhala knisja qed inwissu…” (as a Church we are warning you…)

So was it circulated in both Attard and Balzan? Perhaps residents would enlighten me.  It would also be interesting to learn whether this anti-Halloween person was acting alone or, as he is claiming, as a representative of the Church.

Because, frankly, I find it very odd that an institution which seems to want to control everyone (even those who are not practising Catholics) is finding it so difficult to control its own devout members.

And while I agree that the whole thing is silly, and the over-reaction by some is even sillier, this anti-Halloween ‘crusade’ is just another example of how the Maltese Church is failing so miserably to be in touch with today’s Malta.