I do want my kids to understand and celebrate that Halloween is much more than a fun holiday for kids, however. Halloween is actually All Hallow's Eve. It is the vigil of All Saints Day, a wonderful Solemnity for Catholics. This is much like Christmas Eve is the Vigil of Christmas. All Saints is the day that we celebrate the people who have died and are with God in Heaven. We ask these saints to pray for us, and we try to model their examples of faith and holiness. Following All Saints Day is the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed, better known as All Souls, on November 2nd, when we remember all of the people who have died in the faith. This is a great day to remember family members who have died.
So, with all of the craziness of finding costumes, attending Halloween parties, going trick-or-treating, how do we put it all in perspective and remember these days as the church intends? I find the activities need to be easy and tie into what we're already doing. My top 5 list of go-to ideas, which require very little extra work, are below!
Celebrating a Catholic Halloween
1. Remind your kids that this is the vigil of a Catholic holy day. This one's so basic that it's easy to forget to do it, but kids need to know that Halloween is the eve of All Saints Day. All Saints is also a holy day of obligation, which means attending Mass. ***Note: When All Saints falls on a Saturday or Monday, it is not a holy day, but it is still good to try and get to Mass.
2. Carve Jack-o-Lanterns, and when you get to that great moment of lighting your creation and seeing that warm glow radiate and bring life to everything, remind your kids that Jesus is our light of the world. He lights the darkness and gives us life. As the days get shorter, Jesus is still a light in the darkness, just like the Jack-o-Lantern is a light on Halloween.
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| Okay, I know, not exactly a blog-worthy photo, but this is real life...I sometimes forget to remove the coffee mugs! |
3. Go Trick-or-treating, and when you are done, say a prayer for all the households you visited, especially for their relatives who have died. You could offer individual prayers, or pray an 'Our Father' or 'Hail Mary' together. This is actually a medieval custom of the British Isles, and the origin of trick-or-treating. Children would visit homes and offer prayers and songs for the dead relatives of the families. What the youngsters would receive brings me to the next item on my list...
4. Enjoy Soul Cakes, before or after you go out, share soul cakes as a family. We do this afterwards, after we pray for the families we visited. Soul cakes were given to children in exchange for their prayers. They were a spiced, flat cake almost like a cookie, with a cross imprinted. You can find recipes online in order to do them yourself, or do what I do, which is to get my family a once in awhile treat of doughnuts! They work just as well and are a huge treat around here! You could add a cross on top as well.
5. Donate Candy, and explain to your children that the saints are saints because they served God and served other people. As Catholics, we are called to a life of service. We have many places around here to donate candy the day after Halloween, and it usually goes to our military personnel serving overseas.
I hope these ideas inspire you to have a more spiritual Halloween- happy Eve of All Saints!
If you are looking for other Halloween ideas, or an idea for the month of November, I've linked back to previous posts below:
Spooky Saint Stones: http://firstschooloffaith.blogspot.com/2013/10/spooky-saint-stones.html
Remembering Loved Ones: http://firstschooloffaith.blogspot.com/2013/10/remembering-loved-ones.html
