- PARIS (Reuters) - Saints
instead of witches, pop songs instead of hooting owls, "Christian
cake" instead of pumpkins -- France's Catholics are trying everything
to fend off a Halloween celebration they say is an ungodly U.S. import.
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- As hordes of French children dress up as witches and
monsters on Friday night, some 10,000 Christians are expected at a free
rock concert in Paris to celebrate the Christian All Saint's Day on Saturday
and Sunday's Festival of the Dead.
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- "Halloween has put these Christian holidays into
the shade. Lots of young people don't even know them any more," said
Ines Azais, in charge of an initiative by the French Catholic Church.
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- "Halloween plays with death, it wants to scare us.
But we want to show that we're not afraid of death. We believe in resurrection
and want to celebrate life," she told Reuters.
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- Pumpkin decorations and "haunted castle" theme
parties, associated with the Halloween holiday in the United States, have
only recently arrived in France, a country keen to protect itself from
what it sees as U.S. cultural dominance.
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- Around 35 percent of French celebrated Halloween last
year, slightly up on 2001, according to a survey in Le Figaro daily.
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- Some bakeries are also turning their backs on pumpkins
and cobwebs, which are prominently displayed in many French shops around
Halloween, and have put up figurines of saints in their windows instead.
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- "Halloween isn't French at all," said Odile
Roussel, whose Paris bakery was equipped with its "saints kit"
by a church initiative. It includes notes on different saints and a special
recipe for a pistachio and nut-flavored "All Saint's cake."
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- "It's very popular. Clients like the fact that the
cake represents a Christian event," Roussel said.
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- Striking a less religious note, fast food chain Flunch
is also making a stand against Halloween products by celebrating an ancient
local tradition -- the Gallic New Year -- instead.
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- Following in the footsteps of plucky cartoon character
Asterix, diners eat dishes such as boar and cabbage in stores decorated
with cardboard druids, and can find an inflatable helmet or sword in their
meal.
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