Halloween and All Saints' Day Celebrations in our Home (Keeping it Hallow)

It has been a blessed and fun-filled weekend for our family! My sons had a great time celebrating Halloween and All Saints' Day!

We do not participate in trick or treat activities. (You can read why here in my previous post.) We do not decorate our home with spooky/scary objects. My kids do not dress up in popular Halloween costumes like scary characters or super heroes.

My kids dress up as Saints or Bible heroes instead. Our activities during these days are centered on things that are hallow or holy. Our discussion is centered on the Saints. You may read my previous posts on why we celebrate Halloween or All Saints' Day differently here and here.

I learned about this alternative celebrations of Halloween (short for All Hallows' Eve) and All Saints' Day when my husband and I decided to pursue homeschooling as a way of life for our family. I "met" Teacher Mama Tina (Truly Rich Mom) through her blog and through her blog posts, I discovered the Catholic Icing blog maintained by another blogging and homeschooling mama. These women behind these popular blogs opened my mind to alternative ways to celebrate these holy days with my family/young children. It was also through Teacher Mama Tina that our family became part of ROCKERS, a Catholic homeschool group. We've been participating in the All Saints' Day party organized by ROCKERS in the past years. These activities have blessed our children a lot! I'm so grateful to God for leading us to this group! Finding other parents who have the same beliefs and stand on these topics is truly a big blessing!

Now, let me share how we celebrated these holy days in our home this weekend.

1. Saint Dress-up - I gathered the costumes and props that the boys can use for this activity early on Friday morning. Since we had been  participating in All Saints' Day parties in the past couple of years, we have some costumes already. Add to that the costumes that they will wear this year. (Our ROCKERS activity for All Saints Day will be on November 7.)

I'm so thankful to God for inspiring me with this activity. It was very simple but the boys had a blast playing pretend the whole two days! They just could not get enough of this pretend play.

Mateo as St. Michael Archangel minus the wings.

Mateo as St. Peter.

Yanthy as San Lorenzo Ruiz.

Yanthy as St. Joseph.

While they enjoyed dressing up and pretending to be little saints, I enjoyed taking photos of them in their costumes.

2. Guess the Saint Matching Game - I also prepared a simple game for the boys to help them become familiar with the Saints in a fun way. I gathered some of their toys and other items in our home that we can use in this game. Then, I printed out some photos of Saints. (I got the photos from Happy Saints website.) I lined up the toys/props together with the corresponding photo of Saints.

I briefly introduced the props and the Saints to the boys. Then, after playing pretend for some time, I asked the boys to identify the Saints by simply looking at the items/props. I asked my eldest son to match the photos with the items/props. As for my toddler, I asked him to simply voice out his answers. I was one happy and proud mom last Friday! My eldest son answered our matching game almost perfectly, making only one mistake but correcting it quickly afterwards. My toddler (2-year-old) was also able to identify a number of Saints! These are days when I'm so thankful to God for leading us to homeschool our kids! I felt rewarded and honored by God by simply witnessing these 'achievements' in my kids. Seeing them enjoy learning about our Catholic faith and living it out gives me a sense of fulfillment.

3. October Saints and Feast Day Word Search - I got this free printable from this website. I asked my eldest son (6-year-old) to answer this last Friday. He started answering it in the afternoon but he was not able to finish looking for all the words that day because he was too eager to play pretend Saint. So, I asked him to finish it yesterday.

4. Saint-Themed Food - I got most of my inspirations for this from Catholic Icing's posts. Thank God for the internet and for blogger moms like her! The kids and I enjoyed our 'feast' of Saint-themed food in the past days.

That's me with little St. Joseph the Carpenter and little S. Matthew the Tax Collector.

Little St. Matthew and little San Lorenzo Ruiz.

5. Participating in the Holy Mass - Our main activity for our All Hallows' Eve celebration was participating in the Holy Mass. The boys and I went to Mass in our parish. My eldest was dressed up as St. Michael the Archangel. My toddler wanted to dress up as Moses but I convinced him to dress up as San Pedro Calunsod instead.

Our cute San Pedro Calunsod.

Our little Saint Michael the Archangel minus the wings. ;)

After the Mass, my eldest son invited the priest celebrant who has become our friend to have donut with him at home. The good priest granted my son's request so as not to disappoint him. My son was so happy and proud to share to our priest friend that he has been pretending to be Saint Michael and other Saints that day. He also shared about the Saints that his younger brother pretended to be in our past costume parties and in our upcoming party.

6. Praying the Holy Rosary - It was really part of my plan to pray the rosary with our whole family on All Saints' Day but initially I thought of doing that at home. But since we got to the church where we were supposed to attend Mass yesterday very late (I forgot that the traffic to the church would be horrible on November 1 since we need to pass a cemetery on our way there.), we've decided to pray the rosary in the church instead.

7. Cloud of Witnesses Art Activity - After some more pretend play yesterday, we officially closed our All Saints' Day celebration by doing this activity. Before packing away all the toys, props and costumes, I asked my eldest son to draw a cloud. I cut the white cartolina and asked the boys to glue the photos of the Saints that we used on the cloud. I asked each child what they know about the Saint that they choose to stick to the cloud before letting them glue it on the cartolina/cloud. It's like asking them to make a recap of our lessons on Saints. Again, I was so proud of my little saints. They remembered a lot of what I have shared/discussed with them. All my efforts in preparing for these holy days and in homeschooling them primarily to mold their faith and character paid off. I felt so blessed! 



The boys with their cloud of witnesses.

8. Singing of Songs - Of course, we had to sing songs! haha My boys love music so I let them enjoy songs that are related to our celebration of All Hallows' Eve and All Saints' Day. We played worship songs in the background as we engaged in our activities. One of our favorites during Halloween or All Saints' Day is Friend of God. I let my sons sing San Lorenzo's song over and over. My eldest son even played it in the keyboard repeatedly in the past days.

9. Watching Saint Videos - We also watched videos of Saints on our pc and in my laptop. We watched their favorites -- St. Matthew and St. John the Baptist. (Click here to watch these videos.) They were named after these Saints. I also showed them other videos of Saints and Bible heroes.

 

10. Reading and Storytelling about Saints - We read books about Saints and I told them stories of holy men in the Bible. My sons could not get enough of the story of Moses and how God used him to deliver the Israelites from the Egyptians. They repeatedly asked me and my husband to read about this miracle from our book One Mighty, Awesome, Incredible Rescue. The boys kept pretending to be Moses and Aaron most of the time! 

Mateo as Moses and Yanthy as Aaron.

They also loved the story of Daniel and the lions. Good thing, I found a video in YouTube about Daniel.

Below are the books we read in the past days.

Before I forget, let me mention that we also invited one of my kids' playmates to our house. I told the boys that they can invite our neighbor who usually plays with them to have snack with us last Friday. The boys happily shared our Saint-themed food and toys with their friend. It was during our conversation with their playmate that I realized that my husband and I truly made a wise decision to homeschool our kids. At 2 and 6 year old respectively, our sons know much about our Catholic faith already. They are familiar with a number of Saints and the Holy Mass. Their playmate who is already 7 years old and who is studying in a Catholic school inside our village was not able to identify/recognize any of the props or Saints that my boys were playing with. He also didn't know what Holy Communion is although he said that there is a Mass in their school every Wednesday. I felt sad for the little boy. I asked my eldest to introduce the Saints to his friend/playmate. My son eagerly introduced the Saints and their props to his friend and they played with these toys afterwards. We also shared to their playmate briefly about how we celebrate Halloween in our home. Their playmate went home just before we went to Mass.

It has been a grace-filled weekend for us! We didn't have  a perfect celebration but it surely filled our hearts with joy and made our spirits soar. We are looking forward to our homeschool group's celebration next week and our celebrations again next year. I'm hoping and praying that next year, there would be an All Hallows' Eve or All Saints' Day celebration for kids in our parish so my sons can participate there. 

Celebrating All Saints' Day with the Kids

Happy All Saints' Day, friends! Did you celebrate Halloween yesterday? Just like in the past years, our family celebrated Halloween quite differently than most families. Let me share how we celebrated it this year and what activities I have planned for today and in the next days. I will also share some of the ways by which we celebrated it in the past years.

 

This year, just like in previous years, I planned to introduce two Saints to our kids especially to our eldest who recently turned 5 years old. The Saints whose stories I shared with our kids this year were St. Matthew the Tax Collector and St. John the Baptist. I chose these two Saints because my sons were named after these Saints. Our eldest was named after St. John the Baptist; while our second child was named after St. Matthew. I used some videos to help me tell the stories of these Saints.

 

Below are the links to the videos I showed to my kids last night after Mass and dinner. 

 

 

 

We also read one of their favorite books - Book of Saints by Father Lovasik, SVD (Part 4). My son Mateo's favorite story in this book is the story of St. Dominic. It caught his interest because St. Dominic was shown with a dog, an animal that Mateo is fond of.

You may read about our All Saints' Day activities in the past years in these previous posts.
- Celebrating All Saints' Day Meaningfully and Establishing a New Family Tradition
- Celebrating Halloween and All Saints' Day Differently by Focusing on the Saints
- Why our family does not participate in the usual trick or treats and Halloween costume parties

Let me share some pictures of our All Saints' Day activities 2 years ago when I was still pregnant with Mateo. We introduced St. Peter to our eldest son then. We told him that St. Peter was a fisherman before he was called by God to become a fisher of men. We taught him how to make paper boats which he later played with in a basin of water. Then we had fish for lunch. We also told him the story of St. Peter denying Jesus because he was afraid and let him play with my younger brother's rooster.

Then, we prayed our night prayers before sleeping. One of my joys every night is hearing my sons (ages 5 and almost 2) saying their own night prayers. Both kids know how to pray spontaneously for whatever they are grateful for that happened during the day. They compose their own prayers to say thanks before every meal. They also know how to intercede for others especially those who are sick. My eldest son has already memorized a number of formula prayers. He now helps me teach his younger brother how to say these prayers. What he usually does is he encourages Mateo to fill in the blanks when he recites or leads in praying formula prayers. It's such a delight to hear Mateo (who is turning two years old this month) utter the right words to complete the prayers. I wouldn't be surprised if Mateo would memorize the Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be and the prayer to the Guardian Angels before he turns three years old.

 

This morning, we are playing a cd of Mass songs so the kids can practice these songs. Both kids love to sing during the Mass. Even my youngest loves to sing during the Alleluia and Amen part.

 

Later, we will go to Mass in the evening. I do my best to bring the kids with me every day to attend daily Mass.

I also plan to teach a new song to my eldest son later that's related to the verses that pertain to St. John the Baptist as the one who prepares the way of the Lord. I learned this song when I was still in college.

 

On November 7, my kids will join an All Saints' Day party of our homeschool group called ROCKERS. Thus, one of  I'm busy with these days is planning their costumes and props for next week. By the way, we'd be bringing St. Matthew's offering (chocolates that look like gold coins) as our contribution to the party. ;) You can read more about this event here and here.

For more inspirations on what to do this month of November, just click here. 

Note: I'm linking this post to the Catholic Bloggers Network November 2013 Monthly Link up Blitz.

Celebrating Halloween and All Saints' Day Differently by Focusing on the Saints

I've mentioned in my previous post here that we don't participate in the usual Halloween costume parties or trick or treat activities.  You may click here to find out why.  This year, aside from our yearly tradition of having activities to introduce a saint or two to our kids, we decided to join a "different" Halloween party for our homeschooling group called ROCKERS.  Our group had this activity last year also but I was about to give birth then so we did not join. Last year we introduced St. Peter to our eldest son.  We made paper boats and he played with them, floating them in a basin of water last year after a storytelling session about St. Peter.  He got to "play" with his uncle's (my brother's) rooster. 

 

I was really looking forward to letting the kids join this "different" Halloween party as soon as my fellow homeschooling teachermama Tina announced it. But when I found out that my husband still has work on the day that the party was to be held, I wasn't sure anymore. The venue is quite far from where we live.  Plus commuting with two kids and their costume and props was something I wasn't enthusiastic to do. But God knows my heart and so He inspired and moved my husband to choose to file for a half day leave on the day of the party.  My husband told me about this decision he made a day before the party.  I was so delighted and excited!  I hurriedly checked around the house on the possible costumes and props the kids can wear and use.  Good thing I had been reading a lot of blog posts from other Catholic/Christian moms who had planned and participated in these kinds of parties.  By God's grace, I was able to put together costumes for my kids at the last minute.

 

What makes this Halloween party different?  Why did my husband and I choose to let our kids join it?

 

Our kids with their Dad who took a
leave from work so we can join the party.

The first reason is that it centers on the "hallow" or holy people who have gone ahead of us, the Saints, and kids are encouraged to dress up as one of the Saints.  No gory, scary costumes, not even superhero costumes.  The kids' focus are turned to real heroes, the Saints, who lived inspiring holy lives, doing good to others and loving God in their own unique ways.  The second reason is that there were activities that were designed to help the kids learn more about the Saints. And last but not the least, this was organized by parents who like me and my husband want to educate their children on this beautiful heritage and tradition of our Catholic faith.  As the saying goes, "It takes a village to raise a child."  We are grateful and glad that we are part of this "village."

 

Our kids had so much fun even before we got to the party.  They had fun trying out possible costumes and playing with their props.  Preparing for their costumes and props as well was a good opportunity to explain to my eldest son about the Saints and the feast day. 

 

So, which Saints did my little boys pretend to be?

 



Yanthy as little St. Joseph
with his carpenter tools.

Initially, I thought of dressing up Yanthy as St. Pedro Calungsod because I wanted to introduce this new Filipino Saint to our son and Yanthy already has a camisa chino, black slacks and sandals.  We even watched a video about him.  But I ended up dressing Yanthy as St. Joseph the Carpenter and Foster Father of Jesus.  I chose this Saint for him because he loved to pretend to be a carpenter/builder or handyman.  He has plenty of carpenter or handyman tools too.  Thus, my only challenge was his costume.  Good thing I read in several mommy blogs that an easy and environment friendly way to come up with a costume for a Bible character is to use old pillow cases.  That's what I did on the day before the party.  I chose two old pillow cases and cut holes on them (for the neckline and armholes).  Then, I reinforced the stitches.  I also looked for potential belts for their DIY robes.  I originally meant to use Yanthy's leather belt but my husband suggested that we use a cloth fabric instead. He suggested that we use one of our curtain ties. 

 

Our baby Mateo as little St. Peter
holding some keys.

For our baby Mateo, I used an old and broken curtain rope as his belt. I cut it short enough to be tied around his waist.  As for their cloaks, I used a old brown scarf with gold dust for Yanthy and a yellow baby blanket with red piping and rooster/chicken design for Mateo since Mateo is dressing up as St. Peter the Great.  Mateo's blanket was a gift from Max's restaurant where we held his baptismal reception.  I was also thinking of letting him hold a chicken/rooster stuffed toy (which was also a gift from Max's together with the yellow blanket) but he kept dropping it as he walked.  I got some keys for Mateo's props too and he was very happy to play with it and shake it as he walked around the house during our costume and props dry run. Then, I let them wear earth-colored sandals.  We were all set!

 

We arrived in the venue early.  The kids put on their costumes as soon as we arrived. Yanthy decorated his loot bag and Mateo's loot bag by sticking a picture of their Saints on a brown bag.  He did some coloring activity (a St. Pedro Calungsod coloring page) as well.  He was not able to finish it though because he was so excited to play around and with the other kids.  Mateo was busy walking around in his costume and playing with his keys. 

 

 

Yanthy playing Canonize a Saint.

 

The party started with a parade of the little saints, an opening prayer led by one of the older kids and some songs.  They played some games like canonize a Saint, St. Anthony de Padua's lost and found game and St. Paul says.  Yanthy got to "canonize" St. Therese and he found two medals, St. Martha and St. Lucy. 
 



Mateo played with Pedrito doll
while the games were going on.

 

Yanthy's eyes glued to the screen
while watching a video.

The last two activities before eating and free play were watching a video about a day in the life of St. Francis of Assissi and bookreading/storytelling by Teachermama Tina. 

 

Yanthy enjoys one of the goodies he got while listening to the story.

 

Mateo listens to the story while Daddy carries him.

 

The kids also got a lot of goodies and tokens (also related to our Catholic faith) for joining the activity. 

 

The children played some more before we closed with a prayer.  Our kids had so much fun!  I'm so glad that we got to join this year. 

 

Happy little saints!

 

My eldest son kept asking me on our way home when we'd see our friends again and when we'd go back to Medela house for our next homeschool group gathering.  I guess a new tradition for our family has been born this year.

 

Little saints of God, little friends of God.

The following day, we woke up our eldest son by playing the song Sing for Joy by Don Moen which is one of my children's current favorites.  Yanthy pointed out the other day that this song has the word saints in its lyrics.  So, on All Saints' Day morning, Mateo together with me and his Dad woke up Yanthy with this song. 

 

 

 

They also played some musical instruments while singing more worship songs like Friend of God.  I wanted our sons to get used to singing praise and worship songs here on earth since that is something we would be doing in heaven anyway. ;) So, why not get used to it or practice now?

 

 

 

While my sons were singing and playing musical instruments with their Dad, I was busy preparing for our art activity.  I printed some faces of Saints from happysaints.com.  Yanthy and I used them in making a cloud of witnesses collage. 

 

It was also an opportune time for me to talk more about the Saints as Yanthy and I cut the circles and glued them on white cartolina.  In the past years, we only introduced one to two Saints to Yanthy since he was still very young.  This year, through this activity, I got to introduce more Saints to him.  But I still focused on St. Joseph and St. Peter.

 

Our cloud of witnesses/Saints collage.



Played with his tools for a few minutes
before taking a nap.

 Later in the afternoon after nap time, we had some chocolate donuts at a nearby store and talked some more about the Saints/monks who had hair styles that look like those donuts. :)

 

After dinner, we went to celebrate Mass as a family and ended our All Saints' Day celebration with a story on the life of the Holy Family with emphasis on the virtues of St. Joseph.

 

I slept with joy in my heart knowing that even with our simple activities, my husband and I have done our share in doing our best to raise little saints for God.  I pray that with these simple activities and family rituals/traditions, my sons would grow to love their faith and live holy lives for God. 

Let me end this post by sharing a very timely Bible verse (Psalm 90:12) as we celebrate All Souls Day here in the Philippines.

"So teach us to number our days, that we may acquire a wise heart." (God's Word Translation)

"Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom." (New Living Translation)

When we remember that our lives will end one day and that we do not know the time or the hour when this would happen, we would be more mindlful and deliberate with how we live our lives. We will live our lives with purpose. For life is too precious to be wasted on things or activities that will not bring us closer to our goal, which is heaven. 

Why our family does not participate in the usual trick or treats and halloween costume parties

Halloween is just around the corner and decorations abound wherever we go even in our neighborhood.  As usual, we see a lot of bats, spider webs, witches, and many other scary characters scattered in places that many people frequent.  It's that time of year again when I need to do a lot of expplaining to my very curious little boy why there are a lot of decors like that.  I thank the Lord that our family was able to attend the Mass at SM Cinema 4 last night as part of The Feast Sucat gathering.  It was our second time to attend The Feast in Sucat.  Fr. Larry Faraon gave a very timely homily during the Mass.  His homily affirmed me and my husband in the decision we made years ago of not participating in trick or treats  or Halloween costume parties that do not uphold the real reason for the celebration.   Let me share some of the things/points that Fr. Larry shared/raised in his homily that strengthened my resolve in this issue.

1. Don't say it's just a harmless costume party to make kids happy and let kids enjoy.  The devil is the father of lies and he is good at deception. That is what he wants us, Christians, to think.  He wants us to think that there is nothing wrong with the practices, costumes, etc. The truth is that he is actually deceiving us believers by making us believe that he is not behind these activities so that we would be lured to participate. Fr. Larry quoted a verse from Holy Scriptures: "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8)  The devil has successfully penetrated modern society by destroying this supposedly beautiful celebration.  But we can prevent this from affecting our families with a piece of advice from Fr. Larry which I will put in number two.
2. Don't give the devil a chance to enter your hearts and your homes.  We need to be more discerning in this time and age as Christians; otherwise, we would be easily lured and conformed to the influences of our surroundings.  Fr. Larry adviced parents against dressing our kids in scary or demonic costumes and decorating our homes with things/items associated with evil spirits and the dark world because it's like inviting the enemy into our homes and our lives.  He warned us that the enemy would happily indulge himself and take our acts of welcome seriously.  He adviced us to ignore the enemy and his presence instead.  After hearing Fr. Larry say these words, I felt affirmed that I had been ignoring the commercialized/unChristian Halloween celebrations that abound during this time of year.  These celebrations have always made me feel uncomfortable and last night God used Fr. Larry to explain why I was feeling that way all along.  Now, I feel more empowered to explain to my little boy  why we do not participate in these parties.  Not that he wants to join these parties, because he actually finds them scary.  Fr. Larry said that instead of celebrating Halloween as modern/western society does, he encouraged us Filipinos to celebrate it by being true to our Catholic faith, by celebrating the beauty of the communion of Saints and by introducing our newest Filipino Saint to our kids, Saint Pedro Calungsod.  He said that by doing this, we are ignoring the enemy/devil and his presence in our society and thus not giving him a chance to enter our lives.  It is also an opportuned time to teach our kids about the beauty of our faith and that there are Saints who can inspire us in our walk with God and whom we should emulate.  This gave me an idea of who to introduce to our eldest son come All Saints' Day next weekend.  We have started a family tradition in the past years of celebrating Halloween or All Saints' Day differently and we intend to do this again this year.  You may click here to read a previous post I made a couple of years ago on how we can celebrate All Saints' Day meaningfully according to our Catholic faith.
3. The commercialized celebrations of Halloween distracts us Catholics from celebrating and passing on the rich faith heritage that we have in our Church to our children. Instead of teaching our kids about the real reason of the celebration which is the celebration of All Saints Day and our Catholic doctrine of the communion of Saints, our attention and energies are spent following the trends dictated by modern society. 
   
   
   

   

   Photo source here.

         Let me quote from Sacred Scriptures again: "Do not be conformed to this world (this

         age),   [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be

         transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its

         new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable

         and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in

         His sight for you]." (Romans 12:2 AMP)

        Here are other versions to help us further understand the meaning/message in this 

        verse:

        "Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing

         of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing

         and mature." (CEB)

        "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, 

         that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable

         and perfect." (ESV)

        "Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you

         inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of

         God—what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect." (ERV)

    4.  The enemy of the best is the good.  This was one line/lesson Fr. Larry shared and it's

        true once more in how this truth is embodied in today's modern/commercialized

        celebrations of Halloween.  Aside from parties that encourage kids to dress in

        scary/evil/forces of darkness costumes, there are also parties that encourage kids to

        dress up as superheroes.  Superheroes are good people.  They are portrayed as

        superhumans who fight the evil or bad people in society.  But they are not the best

        people that our kids should look up to as role models.  Christ, the Saints and the men

        and women in the Bible who lived out holy lives are still the best role models for our

        kids and us.  Moreover, superheroes are not real people who truly fought both external

        and internal battles and emerged victorious.  The battles that superheroes fight also

        are most of the time limited to this world.  Introducing the Saints and the holy people in

        the Bible enables us parents to share about life eternal to our kids.  This helps them

        see beyond this time and age, beyond this life and teach them that they are actually

        citizens of heaven and are pilgrims only in this earth.  These are essential

        teachings/catechesis that we should be sharing with our children if we are to offer them

        the best. 

Having said that, how do we Catholics/Christians celebrate Halloween in a way that would glorify God and honor the Saints?  There are many ways and suggestions and I encourage you to read these for ideas.  There are many more that you can discover in the internet through blogs of many Catholic/Christian moms. 

Celebrating All Saints' Day Meaningfully and Establishing a New Family Tradition

All Saints' Day Party Party Ideas for Kids

All Saints' Day Party Games

A Colossal Set of Resources for All Saints' Day
How to honor Saints on All Saints Day
How to observe All Saints Day
How to make a Saint Costume
How to make Biblical Costume
Saint Costume Ideas

Let's bring back the "hallow" in Halloween and honor the Saints on All Saints' Day!

Celebrating All Saints’ Day Meaningfully and Establishing a New Family Tradition

It’s another long weekend because of the celebration of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. We, Catholics, commemorate and honor all the saints, both known (recognized by the Church) and unknown (those who are already in heaven but were not canonized by the Church) on November 1. On November 2, we honor the memory of our faithful departed. Here in the Philippines, it has been the custom of most families to go to the cemetery and visit the remains of their departed relatives on November 1 instead of November 2 probably because most of us believe that our departed relatives are now in heaven with God together with all the saints in heaven.

Celebrating Halloween or All Hallows Evening, which is the day before All Saints’ Day, has become very popular also. It is sad however that the way by which many modern day Catholics or Christians celebrate it today tend to distort the real purpose and meaning of this Holy Day. Donning costumes of ghosts, monsters, the devil, cartoon characters, superheroes, etc. has become popular and widespread. This makes me wonder every time Halloween approaches if we really understand why we celebrate the occasion. This day was reserved to honor holy men and women who have triumphantly overcome their sinfulness and have given us inspiration because of the lives they lived. Why dress up children as enemies of God when they can be dressed up as friends of God just like our beloved Saints? Why choose characters from a movie which are make believe anyway when there are real heroes that our children can emulate? There is such a great cloud of witnesses that has gone ahead of us whose lives have set many hearts ablaze by the example that they gave. I have nothing against costume parties done to celebrate Halloween. I like costume parties actually. But I believe that these costume parties should help us remember the real reasons for the celebration – the saints. A Halloween party organized without honouring the saints in mind is like organizing an awards night wherein the awardees were not invited. It’s like having a Christmas party without Christ in mind. If I am to organize a Halloween party for kids, I would ask the kids to dress up like the Saints they like or in the profession for which their favourite Saint was known for or a patron of. You may click on the following links to get more ideas: http://www.catholichomeandgarden.com/Catholic_Children's_Costumes.htm and http://www.stjoscap.org/images/COSTUMEIDEAS.pdf. In this way, kids are taught to value their faith and look up to the Saints as role models.

It’s so easy to simply join the bandwagon since almost everyone is doing it. Many people find it harmless. As for me and my husband, we don’t find it in our hearts to participate in a Halloween celebration where we do not see the real purpose of the Holy Day being upheld. Romans 12:2 serves as our guide: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

It was with these thoughts that I chose to come up with a new and meaningful family tradition for our growing family. Traditions are manifestations of the values of the families that practice them. I want our family traditions to communicate to our son that we are a Catholic Filipino family and that we uphold our rich heritage both as Catholics and Filipinos. I want our son to grow up practicing meaningful traditions. That’s why I thought of introducing one to two Saints every year on All Saints’ Day to our son, Yanthy. He’s already two years old this year and I think he’s old enough to be introduced to the heroes of our faith. I brought up the suggestion to my husband and he said that he had the same thing in mind. I’m not surprised I married this man! So, excitedly we went about preparing for our story telling session with our son. We searched for books, videos and possible props. We ended up buying a dvd on the life of St. Paul the Apostle. Back home, I reviewed the life story of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and thought of ways to share it with Yanthy.

All Saints’ Day morning came and we began our new family tradition by telling Yanthy what Saints are and that we will be introducing at least one Saint to him each year. We watched the video on the conversion of St. Paul and his ministry together with Yanthy. It was our first time to watch the video. That was a mistake. We should have viewed it first without him. It was too late when we realized that it was not suited for very young children like Yanthy. The material was quite heavy and there were violent scenes like the stoning of the first martyr, Stephen, and that of St, Paul among others. Yanthy didn’t like the video. Lesson learned: screen videos first before showing them to your child even if it is a Christian video. That way, parents like us would know if it is age appropriate. Another lesson that we learned is that story telling with props is a better alternative. With those lessons learned, I introduced St. Therese of the Child Jesus to Yanthy after attending Holy Mass and dinner.

I didn’t use a video or a book. I only used pictures of St. Therese from the internet and everyday things that Yanthy is familiar with. Then, I chose to tell some parts of St. Therese’s life which I think Yanthy could relate to. For example, I told him that St. Therese is also called the Little Flower and I likened her to our orchid which Yanthy and I water every morning. I told him that in the same way that our flower makes me happy every time I see it, St. Therese makes God happy because she is beautiful in God’s eyes. I also told him about St. Therese’s love for the child Jesus. I used his ball this time to relate St. Therese analogy about her relationship to the child Jesus. Yanthy responded much better with our story telling session as compared to the video. I used that opportunity to retell St. Paul’s story using the old fashioned way. I told him that St. Paul rode a big boat and that there were times that his big boat encountered storms at sea and there were lightning and thunder accompanying the storm. But these did not stop him from going to many places to tell people about Jesus. I told him that St. Paul loved Jesus very much that he kept telling people the story of Jesus wherever he went. I was very happy with Yanthy’s response. At the end of our story telling session, Yanthy asked me to kneel down with him and we prayed that we would be good like the Saints and be close friends of Jesus like St. Paul and St. Therese.

Looking back, I realized that I benefitted more from the activity. I have read the life story of St. Therese countless times since I was young girl but I still had new insights yesterday when I reviewed it. It could be because my insights now are related to my new role as a wife and mother. Let me share some of them. First, St. Therese’s Little Way inspired me to do my routine duties as a wife and mother daily with great love not only for my husband and son but more importantly for Jesus. Her example inspired and encouraged me to persevere in doing household chores with joy in my heart even when they are difficult. Once more, she taught me to offer my inconveniences and sacrifices for the purification of my soul and for the conversion of more people. Second, reviewing her story reminded me of the power of prayer to bring hearts and souls to Jesus. I thought of how my fervent prayers for my son would bring him close to the heart of God and I was greatly encouraged to faithfully intercede for my son and for others. Another thing that I found striking in reading St. Therese’s life story is finding out that she had tantrums when she was a little girl and that she was very stubborn. It was cited in her biography that there were instances when she would roll on the floor and cry unceasingly when she didn’t get what she want. I was surprised and at the same time relieved because my little boy is going through the terrible two’s stage. Like St. Therese, he can be very stubborn and throw tantrums when he doesn’t get what he wants. It was comforting for me to know that although she was once like that, she was able to overcome her temperament eventually. She even became a saint! I shared these insights with my husband and he said that we need to pray not only to St. Therese but also to the parents of St. Therese so that we would be wise parents like them who raised holy children like St. Therese.

I thank God for inspiring me and my husband to start this family tradition. I’m excited to discover new things about the Saints and to learn from their example. I pray that as we carry out this tradition in our family we would grow in our love for God and in Christian character so that one day we would also be triumphant like the saints. Let me close this sharing by quoting Philippians 4:8 (NKJV). “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy––meditate on these things.”

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