Friday, October 29, 2010

Italian young people promote ‘Holyween’

Instead of hollowing out pumpkins for Halloween, young Catholic parishioners in Italy will hang pictures of saints from the windows this weekend in preparation for the feast of All Saints Day.

Instead of dressing up as black cats or zombies, young faithful from some 30 Italian cities will spend October 31 hanging pictures of saints from their windows and balconies to celebrate the eve of All Saint’s Day, AFP reports.

“We’re not against Halloween as such, it’s just that we celebrate All Saint’s Day and want to share it with other young people,” said Sara Bidinost, 23, a student from the Sentinels of the Morning group behind the initiative.

“We’ll be hanging images of saints from the front of churches and gathering in the streets… last year it was great fun, people were fairly curious about what we were doing,” she added.

Francesco Parise, a leader for the Veneto region of the National Papa Boys Association, a Catholic youth group that is also taking part, said: “I’m very anti Halloween with its skeletons and pumpkins.

The head of Sentinels of the Morning, Father Andrea Brugnoli said he got the idea to hang up images of saints from the modern obsession with appearance.

SIC: CTH/ASIA