The Easy Catholic Family Guide to All Saints Day Prep

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This year, All Saints Day is on a Friday. Many families will celebrate both Halloween and All Saints Day over the weekend. Halloween is the marquee holiday in our culture, but All Saints Day is “the reason for the season.” It’s important to celebrate that in our domestic churches as well.

What is All Saints Day?

The word Halloween means Holy Eve. It is simply the night before the great feast of All Saints Day. All Saints Day is always November 1, so Halloween is October 31 on the night before.

Despite what some Christians seem to think, it’s okay to celebrate! You just need to understand exactly what it is that you are celebrating!

There is really no historical connection between the setting of this feast and the Pagan Celebration of Samhain.. Pope Gregory III (731-741)dedicated a small chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica in honor of all saints on November 1. That event became All Saints Day.

But I like to look at it another way. The change of seasons and the harvest are gifts from God. As the scriptures say,

“Test everything. Hold on to the good,” and Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

So who are the All Saints?

All Saints Day celebrates the lives and memory of all of the Holy People that have gone before us. Some of those people have been officially canonized by the church and given the title of Saint. Others are on the official pathway to sainthood and have titles like Blessed or Servant of God.

But probably most of the saints we celebrate are unknown. Maybe it’s your grandma who prayed a rosary every day, raised a family, stayed faithful to her marriage, and helped in her church. Maybe it’s the single man down the street who had a strong hidden prayer life but was always a dependable friend, colleague, or family member. Or maybe it’s the tiny child that died free from the stain of actual sin and just left us too early. All of these are examples of saints and we have lived around them always.

We also hope to join them! Because our first goal as Catholic Christians is to become Holy Saints.

How to know the saints.

For the Catholic family, I believe preparing ourselves and our children for All Saints Day really is a year-long activity. Our liturgical calendar is full of feast days. Parents should take the time and the opportunity for just a few minutes each day to educate their children about the holy men and women who have become saints.

But if the children are really small, or you haven’t done that, it’s okay. You can read to them about the saints they were named after or even stories about your own favorite saints.

I think just to begin, this book by Father Lovasik is a classic. The pictures are beautiful and the text is just long enough to give information and whet the appetite to learn more!

A good source to read more about the lives of the saints is 57 Stories of Saints by the Daughters of St. Paul.

A Saint a Day is a good read too!

I have several tools that help me keep on top of the liturgical year. Of course, I use the links from Universalis on my blog, as well as Saint of the Day from American Catholic.


I also use this Saints Calendar and Daily Planner and have a calendar from the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception up on my wall. With these tools, I can see and plan for the liturgical year, all of the feasts and commemorations, almost effortlessly.

Most days we read something about the saint for the day and we ask that saint to, “Pray for Us” after our prayer before meals.

If you want something with more of a Halloween theme but is thoroughly Catholic, I recommend Father Phillip Tells a Ghost Story (out of print but might be on eBay). This really does a nice job of incorporating the other connection with ghosts and the dead, their proper place in Catholic life, prayers for the dead, and purgatory.

Let Your Kids Pick their Favorites

In my own family I have found that the kids will gravitate to one saint pretty early on and then when it’s time to pick a saint for confirmation, they will have one already picked out.

For Calvin, it was Father Damian of Molokai. 

Sam chose St. Tarcisius for his bravery.  Gabe chose St. John the Cure D’Ars, and Noah picked Polycarp.  Izzy always loved the quiet bravery of Saint Veronica and now it looks as if Rosie might be gravitating towards St. Perpetua.

But what if My Kids Don’t Want to Dress as Saints?

As the children get older, they want to participate in Halloween parties with their friends. I’m okay with that, as long as they choose a costume that is not demonic or inappropriate. I feel that they have a strong foundation in the saints and I have relaxed a little with them making their own costumes as teens. For little kids though, I insist on following up with dressing as the saints because they need that strong foundation in learning about the saints that have gone before them.

   

For Further reading see:

Father William Saunders:

Catholic Education Resource Center. 

Mary Reed Newland “The Year and Our Children