Fangs, but no Fangs.

As both a lifelong Unitarian and an avid horror and Halloween enthusiast, I think I'd be remiss if I failed to direct people to this article in today's Boston Globe.

Now, what you may or may not know about Unitarianism is that it's very big in Romania. And, in fact, particularly big in Transylvania. Which leads me to this wonderful passage:

Three years ago, First Parish decided it would step out on a spiritual limb to create a Halloween celebration to benefit the Bedford Food Pantry, but with a few important exceptions. There will be no Count Dracula - nor his vampire kin from the popular “Twilight’’ and “True Blood’’ books and shows - during this monster-mash-themed tour, organizers said.

The Bedford congregation enjoys a warm, 15-year-old relationship with a sister Unitarian church in Abasfalva, in Romania’s Transylvania region, said First Parish’s senior minister, the Rev. John Gibbons, and doesn’t wish to play into outdated stereotypes about it being the birthplace of vampires, fueled by 19th-century novelist Bram Stoker’s famous work, “Dracula.’’

“They really weary of Dracula being the only things Americans know about their country,’’ said Gibbons. “They have such an incredible and rich history and culture, and so few people know that it’s not all about a story invented by a Westerner. So we just don’t do vampires.’’

The church also doesn’t do old-fashioned stereotypes of Halloween witches as green-faced and pointy-nosed. There are modern-day pagans and wiccans who worship at First Parish, and the congregation is sensitive to their feelings, said Lisa Rubin, First Parish’s director of religious education.

The omissions may sound a bit politically correct to some, but organizers say their Halloween celebration is meant to be great secular fun and still in line with Unitarian Universalist values of liberalism and acceptance.

Man. That shit is so Unitarian it hurts.

(image: "The Vampire" by Philip Burne Jones. Obtained via http://www.artmagick.com)