Thursday, November 1, 2012

How they see it

I visited some students this morning, and asked them if they could explain to me the name of the great feast that we celebrate today.

Perhaps I should clarify that I had arrived in the school before the morning announcements and know for a fact that included with the other morning exercises was an announcement about All Saints' Day.

Apparently the students in the classroom where the question was posed were otherwise occupied during announcements, for they were a bit confused by my question.  In fact, their best guess was that today was the feast of Halloween.  I tried my best to explain to them that today was actually the Feast of All Saints.  In fact, I even added another layer:

Since today is the Feast of All Saints, otherwise known as All Hallows, that made yesterday All Hallows Eve.  They didn't quite catch on until I went a bit further and asked them if they understood the meaning of the word CONTRACTION.  As an example, I said that the phraise 'do not' could be contracted to 'don't'.  It seemed that a lightbulb went on.  They then understood that contractions (in this sense of the word) means making words shorter.  As a result, All Hallows Eve can be contracted to Hallowe'en.

Was this catechesis?

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