Greetings to you all on this most holy vigil of All Saints, and soon to be also All Souls Day.
Truly my most FAVORITE of all holy days in which I very seriously dub myself with the duty of promoting and fostering its return as anxiously awaited and beloved feasts. Although All Hallows’ Eve is a most necessary and fun day in which traditionally we should be prepping like it’s Christmas Eve and with the same lively anticipation, cooking and decorating, carving and lighting, praying and eating beside Bon-fire, Halloween has stolen its spotlight for goolish gloom, and freaky mischief. It’s hard not to hate Halloween for that theft but its ugliness and popularity easily adds fuel to my internal fire of competitive boycott.
This post is dedicated not just to promoting the holy days but also to serve as a scrapbook, a documenting so to say of my families best memories surrounding the trio of holy days and who knows, maybe it may spark a few ideas for others to recreate in their own homes and if so I would be truly happy just to know that these holy days might slowly but surely return to their rightful place on the throne that Halloween now sits on.
All Hallows’ Eve
First runner up, All Hallows’ Eve, the first of the trio and though it’s the work load of the storm before the calm it ends up being the most fun for its jam packed crafty n creative fun versus true work. This is the day we carve those pumpkins, prep that food and do ALL the decorating, string white garden lights, fill the bon fire with wood, there is just so much to do. My favorite Holy day foods are stuffed peppers (carved orange peppers filled with ground beef and rice, floating in bowls of tomato soup or marinara served on the side), Holy Ghost snacks (bananas with chocolate chip eyes) & mini pumpkins (clementines with celery stems). Last year I found this spooky lasagna recipe in a magazine at the stop n shop check out that I’m going to make today with only two sets of eyes in honor of St. Lucy who literally plucked out her own eyes and gifted them to her pagan suitor who admittedly fell for her because of their beauty, hoping he would allow her to remain the bride of Christ but I also heard Emperor Diocletian may have had them gauged out as part of her martyrdom also, either way, today she stands patron to the blind.
For the carvings we utilized printable templates online for flames and hands and free-handed our own crosses for depictions of the souls in purgatory but we found there are just about any template you could google available so your own creative depictions would be un-limited. I love keeping a bon-fire going all three evenings so I encourage starting it tonight and I have loved the few trick-or-treaters who spot the activity and light and show up looking for candy. It’s opportunity to share some forgotten history and treat them to a clementine pumpkin or Holy Ghost banana snack for the road. Moms are “eternally” (pun intended) grateful for something nutritious and without sugar and I’m happy to keep my kids busy on door duty over being out approaching strangers doors and taking candy. It’s NOT somehow safe only on this 1/365th day of the year.
This year and in the new farmhouse we ended school at 1pm and started stringing white Christmas lights round our fenced in front yard (still currently working on it; will add pics tomorrow) which also holds the 🔥 bonfire. Next year I hope to build an overhead sign for my front gate that will read “Enter Heaven Here” for any soul to come on in and carve their own mini-white pumpkin to take. Saving on food this year since pumpkins are super cheap at the farm stand down the road. But I love keeping my kids in saints costumes home roaming the yard carving and eating while I prep food for tomorrow and my husband loves getting candy donations from the ones who trade for one of our Saints/Souls goods, it’s merely a bonus keeping my kids home and safe, giving instead of receiving. Somehow it’s more fun too.
All Saints Day
Second in the trio of holy days is the Feast of All Saints. We attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Traditional Latin Mass in ancient Roman Rite early in the morning, have apple cider donuts and egg bite muffins en route gone and to-go cups of hot apple cider. We usually resume school work when we get home but still spend the day in costume. We all make index card biographies of the saints we chose to impersonate and read them off to whomever we see or sometimes just to each other. Some of my kids even like to memorize theirs or act out a short skit in either how they died or how they lived, whichever earned them the title of Sainthood.
Saint Catherine of Sienna, my personal patron, noted for having said, “Be who God meant you to be and set the world on fire,” will always be my annual choice.
Saint John the Baptist impersonated by my son whose head was fished on a platter by the evil queen unsuccessful of seducing him to her bedchambers.
This darling cutie AKA Saint Kateri Tekakwitha is the African American child won over to baptism by Saint Isaac Jogues and she continued his work long after he was murdered by the Iroquois (or was it the Mohawk Indian Americans 🤔I’ve forgotten) for doing such things.
This year my youngest son was Saint Ignatius of Antioch who was forced to apostatize or be thrown to the lions said, “I am the wheat of the Lord, let me be ground by the teeth of beasts into pure bread of Christ. He died in 107AD after writing 7 letter to churches in Asia Minor on the way to Rome to die urging them to remain faithful to God and not to try to save him. He was passionate about church unity and fidelity. St. Ignatius of Antioch, pray for us now.
Communion of the Saints (this year is vanilla wafer cookies) and a glass of the Blood of the Martyrs (fruit punch or red Gatorade) to wash it down for snack. For dinner, lasagna topped with Saint Lucy’s eyes.
One year the kids cut out angels and wrote their patron saints on each one and hung on fishing line from the trees in our front yard.
If gore is your thing there are so many deaths to martyrs to meditate on. We learned the English taste for catholic blood through Elizabeth I with the many she sent to their deaths by drawing and quartering like those of Saint Edmund Campion. If you think Scream is spookie and festive, you have tasted nothing til you meditate on some of these martyrs ends.
All Souls
Last but not least is the Feast of All Souls, celebrated November 2nd, and for us again the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Traditional Latin Mass followed by a trip to the cemetery. We have done in the evenings with just teenagers holding lit taper candles and following the priest as he blesses and incenses the graves, we pray the St. Gertrude’s prayer for our loved ones and I’m hopes of releasing 33 souls from purgatory in this most blessed day.
Sometimes when with littles in tow, like this year, we go to Mass and then to cemetery in the morning, and although not nearly as fabulous as at night by candlelight it is bright and cheery and sunny somehow every year and we bask in the sun beside graves with flowers to lay on as many graves as we can. We usually keep hands warm with hot apple cider or cappuccino for mom 🥰
The day stays holy all the day long with constant prayers for the dead and treats each time the kids do and extra special meals like soul cakes and carved pumpkin peppers stuffed with ground beef and rice and swimming a bowl of tomato soup.
Skits from Dante’s Purgatorio have made their way into our holy days of the past too. So many good times.
This year in honor of the traditional “A penny for a soul cake” that was passed door to door in exchange for prayers for the dead and likely inspiration for the current trick-or-treat we hand out little white pumpkins to all who stop in. We do actually do this on All Hallows’ Eve though, as that’s when the souls are out on the streets a’stoppin. This year we are inviting trespassers to “glow with grace” and letting the littles hand out glow sticks.
So MUCH festivities and so rich in truth and deep rooted history three days is just not enough and I’m sure you can see why it’s my most favorite holidays of the year.
I hope some of this inspires you to make your own Saints and Souls celebrations and that All Hallows’ Eve leaves you with so much prep for the TWO days of party that you will stay safe indoors enjoying some festive food and inspiring trick-or-treaters with all your knowledge of history and all that is beautiful about the Eve of these most holy days.
Her House 