Like Christmas, Halloween is another one of those pagan rituals appropriated by the Christian church and then eventually repaganized by lapsed Christians. Hooray for the lapsed Christians! Or maybe: What goes around comes around. But really, nobody parties harder than lapsed Christians. Hell, ask Satan (although once you’re in hell, talking to God is pretty much out of the question, innit?). Sure, Jesus (who was a lapsed Jew himself) changed the water to wine, a trick that certainly should have landed him a place in the party-animal pantheon, but in the end he was best known for his suffering, which is sort of a downer. Who needs that? If you’re looking for a fun Jesus, check out the hilarious, hairnetted, purple-suited, ball-licking Jesus from the movie The Big Lebowski. Now there’s a Jesus you can build a costume around. Sure, he’s thin, swarthy, foreign sounding, and flashing mad bling – a combination not everyone can pull off – but he’s a lot snappier than the old model. Come on … a bed sheet and a tinfoil halo? You can do better than that. Here’s a suggestion: Roll on over to the Austin Music Hall this Friday for Live Under the Oaks 2004, a fundraiser/concert/costume party benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Texas. You may not be able to dress like Jesus, but you can sure dance like him because BBBS has Del Castillo kicking off the evening with their sweet Latin beats, followed by dance music from Dysfunkshun Junkshun. Hey, it’s just a name. Don’t hate. There will also be a raffle, live auction, and a costume contest – plenty of fun ways to drop cash on a good cause. Think of it this way: What goes around comes around.
This article appears in Iraqi Day of the Dead.
