Why should we, good Catholics, flee from this day? We should not. We should take back our "holy" Halloween. (All Hallows Eve)
Be inspired by the medieval All Soul’s Day custom of beggars knocking on doors for "soul cakes" in exchange for prayers for the household’s deceased! We have created our own version of the All Soul's Day custom. I've typed onto little strips of paper:
"Thank you for the treat.
My family and I will be praying for you and the souls of your dearly departed loved ones during the month of November.
Happy All Saints Day and Happy All Souls Day!"You can easily change the message slightly for siblings. We plan to have fun the day of Halloween cutting up the messages, rolling them into tiny scrolls, and tying them with pretty satin ribbons.
The author of the post that inspired me wrote,
People were surprised and delighted with the scrolls. One man said to my "nun" daughter, "Why, thank you, sister."On the giving-out-treats part of the evening, you could hand out candy along with stickers, (purchased from a Christian supply store) with messages such as "Jesus loves you."
She replied with a big grin, "Well, not yet."
The author closed her article with this story:
"One year, as we were returning from trick or treating, we were behind a little boy whose mother was berating him with foul language. The boy ran ahead to our house where a friend was giving out treats. When the child returned, he was elated—literally jumping for joy as he showed his sticker to his now docile mother. "Look, Jesus loves me!" he said. My children, who had been stunned by the earlier bad language, quietly observed everything, and I know it made an impression upon them."
Lagniappe!
- I also created an assignment for my son based on another Catholic mother's opinion about Halloween. Feel free to check it out. Home Schooling Notebook
This Rock
Taking Back Our Holy Hallows Eve
*** Catholic Education - All Hallow's Eve by Mary Reed Newland
*** CatholicCulture.org (same article as above w/ H/T & sourcing)
AmericanCatholic.org Halloween
Why We Don't Celebrate Halloween by Milehimama
Thanks to Lunch Break for the picture of the little saints!
2 comments:
Excellent, Peggy! We've stopped saying that we "don't do Halloween" because we actually do celebrate it -- only in a Catholic way -- The origin of the words is Catholic in "spirit" so to speak -- in that it is the the Eve of all Hallowed or Sainted... So we just celebrated it as it should be done, in a wholesome way, staying away from th grotesque, worldly version of the day. Since we live in the country, we don't have kids coming to the door. But I LOVE the idea of the printed note with candy -- we did that when we lived in town. :) It's a fun, simple way of doing some stay-at-home Catholic evangelizing!
thanks for all the info and the links. i have a presentation to do just before the end of the month, and i've been trying to figure out how to tie it in with All Saints and All Souls Day.
i think i may have found some ideas ...
blessings!
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