Dressing up facing mortality celebrating the harvest moon in fog or harvest dust and golden Moon in stormy sky is exciting


Why did Mormonism start to creep back from harvest time parties
Was it the suburban ward syndrome since most Mormons left 5he farm?

What gives?

Any theology on masks or prophets reasoning, or was it just a part pooper bishop who mis informed me (still bawling over the first latex full head masks I got convinced was too a sin to wear back when. Heck)

It's quite common for public organizations to ban masks at Halloween parties. It is a safety measure, to decrease the potential for anonymous troublemakers to, well, make trouble.

Of course, we all know that Mormons can't just leave it at that, now can they! There has to be a more cosmic, more Biblical explanation. It has to be something related to Joseph Smith, or Satan, or Captain Moroni. Or something.

Joseph Fielding Smith, before he became chief profit, attended a ward Halloween party and he told a kid in a mask to behave himself and the kid told him to f♪♫k off and they were never able to figure out who it was, so a revelation was received.

HaHaHa!

Oh my, it was just revealed to ME who that kid was! Good on ya, Dawg!

No, no... Although I did flip off Joseph Fielding Smith, from about 25 feet from his sour puss. I'm pretty proud of that! I'm pretty sure it was June 2, 1965.

i think the ban began shortly after the release of the Kubrick film “Eyes Wide Shut”

The masked orgy scenes reminded them too much of JS and BY polygamy exploits.

I think senior LDS management fears the membership learning the bretheren are still hosting and participating (if enough Viagra can be scored)these types of sexcapades.

Wouldn't LDS Sexcapades be one heck of an oxymoron? Or would that be oxymormon?

<insert rimshot here>...I'm here all week. Try the veal(not really). Don't forget to tip your server!

Sadly, attitudes have changed.

I had a bishop who didn't like Halloween and tried to say the ward wasn't allowed to have a party of any kind. I'm not the biggest fan, but I balked. My kids wanted a party. I'm not sure how I did it, but since our budget was zero, we had a ward party in the cultural hall. Fun times.

back in my first (rural South) ward. I don't think masks were allowed, but face-painting was, and I think some of the more talented sisters even volunteered to face-paint kids whose parents were artistically challenged.

Some of the moms who could sew made marvelous costumes for their kids.

We had little kids in cute costumes model them in what we called a "boo-teek." We set up little games in various rooms around the church - I remember a bean-bag toss at various targets, and of course, every kid got a prize. In one room, we had a bunch of strings hanging down from the ceiling, and the kids were supposed to close their eyes and let their parents walk them through the "spider webs." Another thing we had was a huge pot of cold cooked spaghetti. The kids were supposed to fish around in the pasta until they found one or more green grapes, which we assured them were "monster eyeballs." The grapes could be exchanged for pieces of candy.

I don't know who had more fun - the kids or the grown-ups. The parties were always a huge success. I can remember that my standard "costume" (even then) was a headband with kitty ears on it, with painted on whiskers. Gotta stay in character, you know!

Nobody had ever heard of the lame "trunk or treat" thing back then.

I heard that the church came up with the idea much after the fact, but that it was loosely based on the idea that many of the guys who tarred and feathered J.S. wore masks. Masks supposedly provide the anonymity to behave in a way that one would not normally behave - often in an uncomely manner.

Bullshit. Masks are fun.

Back when I was still trying to be a good Mormon girl, our ward had a “trunk or treat” in The parking lot. They decided to make it a contest for who had the scariest trunk. I don’t think they were quite prepared for me. My screen name comes from the fact that I make prosthetic limbs for amputees; thus I had access. I had all these arms and legs sticking out of my trunk! The kids had to reach into a prosthetic leg to get their candy. I wore my lab coat and had a plastic meat cleaver in one hand and told the kids “I want your hand...wait I already have one”. At that point I would bring out a prosthetic hand I was hiding behind my back, and then pull the cable to make it open and close. And announce “IT’s ALIVE!!!” Yeah, I won! The youth loved it, but some of the primary kids were traumatized!

I knew an episcopal priest with a pet snake. Though it was the size of a pencil when he acquired it by the time I met the snake it was massive and feeding it was a 2 person job.
The priest/owner said when the snake was still a size that could be handled he had great fun answering the door in his urban neighborhood on Halloween with the snake around his neck and it could reach out 3+ feet to greet the trick or treaters.

BYU Boner can still do that....

Our ward never banned masks. Was pre correlation though 60s and 70s.

And these stupid rules about masks and face painting come from a church that forces its members to wear absurd costumes in their so-called house of horror (temple). Makes perfect sense.

The "masks" they wear pretending to be the happiest people on earth are deemed to be adequate by their leaders.

We wore masks for trick or treating and so did everyone. We were not allowed to wear theme in the church or school. I think a lot of that is practical. If I am in charge of a group of kids, it helps to be able to recognize them if there is any trouble



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2017 07:49PM by bona dea.

Of course no masks. What would Mormons want with another face when they already have two?

Masks were never banned at ward holoween parties when I was young. One year as holloween approached, our gymnasium was under construction and therefore unavailable to us for our annual haunted house. We got some good laughs discussing how we might be able to make a haunted chapel instead. Of course, we knew not to even ask for permission to do that.

This may not be right, but was told, that those who killed JSmith wore masks, were not able to be identified, or brought to justice.
Like the kkk.

The cult hadn't banned masks when I was growing up. Only the scariest masks were not allowed.

That may have changed when my children were young. The ward Halloween parties we did attend there wasn't a problem with the costumes they wore. I do remember something about no masks inside the church building back then.

My mom used to dress up as the scariest witch on Halloween for ward parties. She was an accomplished actress, so between her makeup, costume, and acting she was convincing. She had been trained as a method actress too, no less.

She used to be stake drama director during that time. She ran a couple of roadshows and other stake drama productions when there were still roadshows back in the day.