“Sweetheart, there’s a Halloween party being organized here. Are we letting our son join?” I asked my husband almost a decade ago.

“Why? Is that something aligned with our faith? Is that something he really needs to join?” was my husband’s reply.

My excitement to dress up my toddler suddenly slipped away… My husband gave me some points to ponder.

What does Halloween Mean?

I paused for a while and remembered that most of these Halloween events are not true to the real meaning of Halloween. These events do not help us remember that this day is the beginning of Hallowtide, the three holy days which consists of Halloween or All Hallows’ Evening, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.  In fact, most of these Halloween celebrations deviate from the truth about Halloween. The focus has been shifted from what is holy to what is scary. Halloween became synonymous with horror. This is sad because the word hallow in Halloween means holy, not horror.

Do you pray The Lord’s Prayer? The old English version says “hallowed be thy name.” That word used in The Lord’s Prayer is the same word where Halloween came from.

After much thought and discussion, my husband and I decided that our son will not join commercialized Halloween events that do not uphold its real meaning and purpose. You can read about the detailed reasons why our family does not participate in the usual Halloween or Trick or Treats in this blog post I wrote years ago.

We held on to our stand even after having two more children.

We created our own family traditions centered on our Christian and Catholic faith. I wrote another blog post about these traditions that we started. We wanted the focus of our celebrations to be about the saints because these holy days were meant to commemorate the holy men and women who lived their lives for God. (Read about this here.) Eventually, we discovered fun and meaningful ways to celebrate Halloween and All Saints’ Day that are aligned with our faith. We also found other Catholic parents who had similar values.

Thus, exactly six years ago, we joined our first Halloween and Parade of Saints Party with our fellow Catholic Homeschoolers. Our group is called Rockers because Jesus is our Rock and the center of our lives. Our eldest just turned 4 years old at that time; while our second child was almost a year old. Our eldest came as St. Joseph the Carpenter and Husband of Mary. Our second child came as St. Peter. They had  fun meeting, playing and celebrating with fellow Catholic children who were homeschoolers like them.

The following year, we joined this yearly activity with our Rockers group. My eldest came as St. Michael Archangel and my second child came as St. Matthew the Tax Collector because he was named after him.

The year after that, my eldest came as San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila because the hymn to San Lorenzo was one of his favorite songs at that time. My second child dressed as St. Dominic de Guzman.

We were happy with our homeschool support group and our activities. But it became more challenging when I got pregnant again with our third child and after I gave birth to our third baby. The activities were usually held in Quezon City. Our family is from the south of the metro. Traffic was getting worse every year. It’s exhausting especially when you have an infant, a toddler and an active grade-schooler. Going out of the house just for simple errands or regular trips like going to the grocery, mall or mass is challenging enough. How much more when you have to get the kids dressed in costumes and you need to drive for hours?

Sometimes, God allows us to experience difficulties so He can redirect us and use us to be His instruments of blessing to others.

This prompted me to ask the leaders in our parish if they would be open to an activity like a Parade of Saints. I praise and thank God that He allowed my husband and me to have that problem. Otherwise, I would not probably initiate this kind of activity in our parish.

The year after I gave birth to our third baby, we joined in another parish that is relatively nearer our place of residence. However, it was still quite a distance and we almost missed the Parade of Saints.

The following year, I made a decision to talk to some of the servant-leaders in our parish.

Parade of Saints in our Parish

Since our two older children were part of the children’s choir, I first shared the suggested activity with the choir heads, who in turn shared it with the Head on the Commission on the Liturgy and Popular Religiosity. We were blessed that they liked my suggestion and there were kids and parents from the children’s choir who bought this idea.

Thus, the first Parade of Saints in our parish happened two years ago with 13 participants, which included our 3 children. The children received loot bags as well and had some snacks after the Children’s Mass at 4 PM. We didn’t have a budget but we were supported by generous donors who shouldered the snacks and some giveaways.

My kids dressed up as St. Olaf, St. Ferdinand and St. George. All of them were dressed as knights/kings who became Saints.

The following year, the Parade of Saints activity became an inter-commission and parish-wide event. This activity became a joint effort of the Commission on the Family, Commission on Youth and Commission on Liturgy and Popular Religiosity. From 13 participants, we had almost 50 participants last year (2017)! The participants were both kids and adults! Wow!

During our first Parade of Saints, the kids in saint costumes only paraded in the church before the start of the 4 PM children’s Mass. Each child in costume and the Saint they represented were introduced. But the following year, our new parish priest decided that the Parade of Saints will go around our village. The participants walked through several streets in our village while praise songs were being played on a portable speaker. Just like in our first Parade of Saints, each Saint was introduced along with the child in costume. After the Mass, the participants together with their parents had some snacks and were given loot bags. Once more, we had generous sponsors for our loot bags and giveaways. The parish shouldered the cost of the snacks. The parents and children had fun and were grateful and happy to have this kind of activity in our parish.

Then, this year (2018), we had more than 60 participants! The participants were from different age groups and areas in our parish. From infants and toddlers to adults. Amazing!

Truly, the harvest is great but the laborers are few!

We had a parade again around our village. But this time, during our parade, the Holy Rosary was being prayed. The same program was done before the start of the Mass. After the Mass, the kids and their parents and the adult participants had snacks. All the participants received loot bags again and some giveaways (Catholic magazines) which were donated by Shepherd’s Voice Publications.

This year, I suggested that we have some activities after eating so the participants, especially the kids, can learn and remember more about the Saints. I also had Saint coloring pages printed out, which the participants colored while waiting for the parade to start. Then, after eating we chose and awarded the best 3 coloring pages. We also awarded the best in costume for boys and best in costume for girls. We had a group game that tested the kids’ knowledge about the Saints and we had a word search game on Saints with Feast Days during the month of October. It was an exhausting but blessed day!

This year, eldest dressed up as St. John Capistrano, my second child as St. Albert the Great and my youngest as San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila.

My husband and I not only got to solve our problem on the accessibility of this kind of activity but we also had the chance to introduce it to our fellow Catholics in our village and parish.

I praise and thank God for blessing our efforts in evangelizing more families on the real meaning of Halloween and providing an activity they could join to celebrate Halloween and All Saints’ Day the Catholic way!

We are so thankful that God has called us to this mission and He has led us to our parish where we have found other parish servants who supported this activity. It’s time to redeem Halloween and make more people know what it’s purpose really is and that Catholics can celebrate it also in a fun and meaningful way that is aligned with our Catholic faith.

I pray that more and more parishes and Catholic schools would have similar activities so the Catholics can have more options in celebrating according to their Catholic faith during this season. More importantly, I pray for more Catholic parents and grandparents to tell the truth about Halloween and All Saints’ Day to their children. We, parents, are our kids’ first teachers and catechists. It is part of our duty and responsibility to tell them the truth and to teach them about their faith. As the Bible says in Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Today, on the actual day of Halloween, my kids colored some more coloring pages, we read the Bible. read aloud some stories about the Saints, watched videos about them and ate some treats after we played Saint-themed games. We went to Mass as a family wherein our kids dressed up as Saints again. Before sleeping, we also prayed the Holy Rosary.

If you are a Catholic parent and this blog post has inspired you to plan for a Catholic celebration or activity in your home, let me share this blog post I wrote years ago to give you some ideas. I wrote this to help fellow Catholic and Christian parents like me organize “holyween” celebrations with their families.

Happy Halloween! A blessed Hallowtide to everyone!