Does your family celebrate

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annad347

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Halloween
All Saints Day
both or neither?

When I was little my family celebrated Halloween, mother pleasing her children, then praying for their souls (I’m guessing)

I’m not sure why she didn’t celebrate All Saints Day, in fact I didn’t even know about All Saints Day until I was much older.

so I was wondering what do you celebrate, Halloween, All Saints Day, both or neither… and what do you do for with your family?

and please, (not sure what people are like) I really don’t want to hear a debate on whether or not we should celebrate any of the days, just weather or not you celebrate them.
 
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We celebrate Halloween a little bit. The kids can dig something out of their closet for dress up & pass out candy. And eat the leftovers. 😉 But I don’t make a big deal of it and I don’t put money or time toward costumes.

All Saints is Mass, donuts (rare treat!), and no school (we homeschool). I try to make it like a Sunday.
 
annad347 said:
Halloween
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I am in Australia. Halloween is a foreign construct. There has been an attempt for it to take off but it hasnt.

All Saints and All Souls days are days the Church remembers Saints and Souls of the departed. We do celebrate, or commemorate more aptly, those days.
 
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All Hallow’s Eve, All Saint’s Day, and All Soul’s Day were celebrated in my family when my children were young.
They usually dressed as a saint one year and then a character of their choice the next. We alternated each year. When the children were older, our parish encourage dressing as a saint for Mass and the children told a quick narrative about their saint. Sometimes, we had a party in the hall afterward.

We lived in an evangelical area, and people would be surprised when my children were dressed up as saints and told folks Happy All Saint’s Day when they said thank you for the candy they got Trick or Treating.

My children also loved the solemnity of Christ the King. We’d have a nice family dinner and rosary on that day. I’gd let the kids take out their nutcrackers and Jingle bells that day. Then they had to wait patiently through Advent to decorate for Christmas following the children’s pageant and Mass on Christmas Eve.
 
Both!
I take a number of younger siblings out trick-or-treating on Halloween, and we wear costumes based on practically whatever theme we would be into (I must say I looked pretty dashing as Napoleon Dynamite myself…LOL). We also carve pumpkins (My mom carved a good impression of Golgotha hill during the time of the Crucifixion), and roast the pumpkin seeds. We definitely add salt. They are DELICIOUS!
For All Saints’ Day, there have been numerous All Saints’ Day parties at my church for the youth, though that’s for homeschooling families, since there’s usually school if it falls on a weekday 😦 My family never seems to run out of ideas for saints to dress up as for events like this.
 
So All Saints Day is just a party at the church, or is there something more traditional about it.

and I thought Day of Souls was celebrated in Mexico, when they go visit their families at the cemetery and have a huge party there for them. I didn’t think it was a Catholic holiday.
 
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annad347 said:
So All Saints Day is just a party at the church, or is there something more traditional about it.
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For information on what the point of this day is:


One thing’s certain: It’s a Holy Day of Obligation. I’m not sure if you would classify a mass as “traditional” (I would), but there is that.
annad347 said:
I thought Day of Souls was celebrated in Mexico, when they go visit their families at the cemetery and have a huge party there for them. I didn’t think it was a Catholic holiday.
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Well, in the Church, we know it as “All Souls’ Day.” And yes, it’s a Catholic holiday. Just as All Saints’ Day celebrates the saints in Heaven, All Souls’ Day is a day for the souls in Purgatory. It’s not a Holy Day of Obligation, but we offer masses for the souls in Purgatory. They are optional, but nice to go to, especially if a loved one has died.
 
annad347 said:
and I thought Day of Souls was celebrated in Mexico, when they go visit their families at the cemetery and have a huge party there for them. I didn’t think it was a Catholic holiday.
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It’s a Catholic feast to pray for the souls in Purgatory. In Mexico it has acquired many cultural aspects and seems to be a huge celebration… but they aren’t the only ones celebrating the day. Any Catholic who attends Mass, fulfills the usual conditions, and visits a cemetery to pray for the souls on that day can receive a plenary indulgence applicable only to the holy souls. 🙂
 
They are HUGE celebrations at our parish.

Halloween is a Vigil Mass then a big party for the children with games and treats and fellowship.

On All Soul’s Day our parish offers the traditional three Masses. First two are in the Church, weather permitting the third is celebrated at NOON in the Catholic Cemetery.
 
Maybe my church will celebrate All Saints day… if Im off God willing, I’d like to go
 
annad347 said:
WOW, your children must have had a fun childhood.
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Thank you. That’s so nice for you to say.
I tried. I really did. We have some really great memories. My kids were serious about their Faith and prayers. I was very blessed.

One year for Mama Mary’s birthday, I let my children make a cake and card. They were in pre-school through 1st grade. Big on ages, on the homemade card they wrote 20,000 instead of 2000 for Mama Mary’s age. They were so cute!
 
The local FSSP parish near me is having an All Saints Day party on Oct. 31st

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I tried to convince my local territorial parish to do something similar, but everyone was like “no one is going to be interested” - without even taking a poll. 😦
 
We have Trunk or Treat at our parish after the Vigil Mass. Have done this for years. It is pretty common around these parts.
 
TheLittleLady said:
We have Trunk or Treat at our parish after the Vigil Mass. Have done this for years. It is pretty common around these parts.
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I just heard about this at the church I’m going too. I wanted to participate but I’m working. 😦
 
Never Halloween. If there were private celebrations anywhere, I never heard of them, nor did stores carry the huge number of Halloween products that now appear for sale and display.
Halloween was never a thing in Australia, until non-Australian movies and brought it to awareness, and then marketers, perceiving another avenue for financail profit, jumped onthe bandwagon of filling shelves with Halloween products.
Even so, in the years since Halloween came to the public notice of Australians, I’ve only ever seen one small group of children coming along the street to knock on doors. Two little children, with their mother. One year only. “Trick and treat’” hasn’t really taken off here.

As Catholics we celebrated the Holy Souls but as we know, in modern times every Christian celebration is now snowed beneath commercial profit, just as in the 1920s a certain soda company turned Saint Nicholas into the secular Santa Claus, who now rules over huge secular profits. And elsewhere once again an old pagan celebraton now hops over Easter, scattering a plethera of chocolate eggs for sale and consumption.

But You’re still there, Lord Jesus. We see and love You through the fog of commercialism and secularism.
 
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