How Our Catholic Family Celebrates Hallowtide

Hallowtide is comprised of three days: All Hallows Eve, Feast of All Saints and Commemoration of All Souls.  While many are busy getting their costumes, candy and face masks ready (thanks, COVID), our family celebrates in a much different way.
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Our decision to celebrate Halloween is mostly because Halloween is a “holy mockery of the devil” and as St. Thomas More said, “the proud spirit cannot endure to be mocked.” ​

Halloween

​As usual, we are forgoing trick or treating or any Halloween parties and spending a nice day at home baking cookies, reading books, carving pumpkins and watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”

Check out more of our favorites on Amazon!

All Saints Day

Since All Saints Day is a Holy Day of Obligation, we go to Mass!  Afterwards, I will dress up my children in their favorite Saints Costumes, mostly all handmade and we will enjoy left over cookies and pray the Litany of the Saints.

Our All Saints Day party décor is thanks to some beautiful Saint Trading Cards from Catholic Paper Goods which I clipped to a string for our banner! 

The cards are instant downloadable, high resolution PDF files set up with 2 folding cards on each page. They feature full color saint illustrations on the front and birth/death dates, locations, symbols, patronages and quotes and/or biographical information about each saint on the back. An added bonus is getting PDFs of coloring pages for all the saints in each set! Plus, now through November 3, all trading card and flash card sets are 25% off.   Visit:  catholicpapergoods.com

"All you Holy men and women (and babies!), pray for us!"

One qualm I have with those who say that Catholics “worship” or “idolize” saints is that they don’t realize that we love the saints as if they were our family members and we ask for their help from time to time.  You don’t “worship” your sweet Uncle Joe who passed away a few years ago, you just love and miss him and hope that he is in Heaven watching over you and your family members.    ​

All Souls Day

We will drive to a local cemetery and pray the Holy Rosary for the souls in the cemetery, along with our family members and friends who have passed away. Since my children are still very young and the littlest one is a flight risk, we will stay in the car.

The History of Halloween

Halloween comes from the phrase “All Hallows Eve.”  Hallows means Holy or Saints and “All Hallows Eve” or “Hallowe’en” is really just the night before a very important Holy Day of Obligation in the Roman Catholic Church:  All Saints ​​​Day!

​In 609 AD, Pope Boniface IV established All Saints Day on May 13th and then in the mid-eighth century, Pope Gregory III moved All Saints Day to November 1st.   All Saints Day is a day which is dedicated to the saints of the Roman Catholic Church, which includes everyone in heaven.

The day after All Saints Day is All Souls Day.   All Souls Day is dedicated to those souls who have died and not yet gone to heaven and is annually observed on November 2nd.  Let us remember Our Lady of Fátima told the three children that “there were many souls in purgatory that had no one to pray for them.”
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To me, not being able to reach heaven after my life on Earth is finished is scarier than any Haunted House in the entire world.  

How We Don’t Celebrate Halloween:
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We do not mess around with Ouija boards, spells, séances or anything of the sort.  
 ‘Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.'  Leviticus 19:31
and
“Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.”  Deuteronomy 18:10-12
 
I think God is pretty clear on that point. 
 
When my son was a toddler, once we were taking a walk when we spotted a cat in the neighbor’s yard.  My son LOVES animals and immediately started to call after the cat and use some hand signals that we use for our cat.  He couldn’t understand why the cat was outside, though.   He kept “baby babbling” that the kitty was outside and that our cat was inside.   When we got home he kept running after our kitty and pointing outside.  I explained to him that while our cat lives inside with us and is considered an “indoor cat”, some other people have “outdoor cats” and the cats live both inside and outside of the home.   I am really hoping he got the message and doesn’t try to push our cat outside the next chance he gets.

What does this have to do with Ouija boards?  Just as I explained to our son that some people decide to let their cats live both outside and inside, we made a different decision.  As our children get older, I want them to understand that some families make different decisions than we do and it doesn’t mean that they are bad just because their decisions are different.  So, while some may have a Ouija board, they will be told (and I pray they listen) that they should not “play” with it ever.   Maybe the parents have no idea how terrible these boards are and perhaps my son will be the light that brings them to the truth.
 
How will you celebrate Hallowtide?  Please, share with us on Facebook!
 
As always, thank you for reading and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always.

Sources:
Why Catholics Should Embrace Halloween. Catholic Answers, 14 July 2016, www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/why-catholics-should-embrace-halloween.
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All Saints' Day - Saints & Angels. Catholic Online, www.catholic.org/saints/allsaints/.
 Thompson, Father Augustine. “The Catholic Origins of Halloween.” UCatholic, 31 Oct. 2016, www.ucatholic.com/blog/the-catholic-origins-of-halloween/.

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