Discussion Series / MidnightMass2021

I have an issue with this entry under Artistic License – Religion:

• It's true that green vestments are worn during "ordinary time" (aka the Sundays after Pentecost). However, that season of the church year occurs between late May or early June and the first Sunday of Advent (late November). It's impossible to be in ordinary time right before Lent, which falls in February; the season would have been Epiphany, and Father Paul likely would be in the right to wear white.

In the Latin Rite Catholic Church there are two seasons of Ordinary Time. The first is between Christmas and the beginning of Lent, with Epiphany no longer having its own octave. This is a short period of time in the year (in 2021 it was five and a half weeks). The second season of Ordinary Time is by far the longest season and occurs between the end of the Easter season (which ends on Pentecost) and the first Sunday of Advent. Epiphany does not have its own season in the current calendar, and even if it was still observed it would be an octave (i.e. eight day period).

For example, in February 2021, the fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time was February 7, and the week of Ash Wednesday was the sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, which would all be "green days."

The Eastern Churches do not have "Ordinary Time" between Christmas and Lent, but the church in Midnight Mass is clearly Latin, which does have Ordinary Time during this period.

I moved these from Shout-Out to Homage, but they got moved right back without explanation, so I put them here to prevent an edit war:

• The Wham Shot of A newspaper from decades ago showing Monsignor Pruitt standing in front of the church, looking exactly like Father Paul calls to mind the final shot of The Shining.
• The Angel's being brought to the island in a trunk is similar to Orlock's method of transportation in Nosferatu.

It's my understanding that a Shout-Out is when a work is mentioned or shows up in another work, while an homage is when an aspect of a work is recreated in another work. Both of these examples seem to be an example of the latter.

Removed:

• The finale is very reminiscent of The Thing (1982), with a Dwindling Party of human characters fully accepting they probably won't make it, but still burning everything down to the ground and destroying all the remaining boats, just to leave the vampires with neither refuge from the sun nor any means to leave the island.

If there's a direct shout-out to The Thing, I missed it. And this connection is too thin to be an homage. The situations only have a vague similarity due to both being about a The Plague situation, and pretty major details are different.

Removed:

• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Father Paul has a strange, stilted way of speaking. Justified since he's only recently recovered from senile dementia.

Paul speaks perfectly normally in conversation. I think this entry is talking about his sermons, where are delivered in a fairly standard speechifying style.