How to keep the HALLOW in Halloween AND Ideas for All Saints' Day

This post is inspired by one of my favorite Catholic mom bloggers of all time (Lacy of Catholic Icing and Catholic ABC's preschool curriculum - just got our copy a few days ago, the same day we had our first official field trip to an exhibit on Blessed John Paul II!).

That's me holding our copy of Catholic ABC's! Yahoo! Praise GOD after 1 month plus of waiting!  ;-)

Halloween is just around the corner, and I hope to be celebrating it with our kids in a more meaningful way, compared to last year.

Last year we celebrated Halloween for the first time in the Philippines and the kids went trick or treat-ing at Valle Verde 1, where hubby's aunt lives. ;-) 

Tim was dressed as a knight (I kept telling him he was St. George, but  he didn't quite appreciate it. This year though, he is excited to be dressed up as the dragon-slaying saint, so we'll just be recycling his costume and adding a few more touches. Like a sword and shield maybe.
Rysse was dressed as an angel upon the request of her aunt, hubby's sister (she bought everything!). :-) Don't know if she'll be the same this year BUT if I have my way, I want to dress her up as one of those saints who were royalty. She is after all very fond of princesses now. If not, I would love to have her dressed up as her patron saint, St. Therese of Lisieux!

Borrowing from one of Lacy's posts about Halloween, let's check out what the word HALLOW really means:

Definition of Hallow: Hallow is a word usually used as a verb, meaning "to make holy or sacred, to sanctify or consecrate, to venerate".[1]  The adjective form hallowed, as used in The Lord's Prayer, means holy, consecrated, sacred, or revered.[2] In modern English usage, the noun hallow appears mostly in compounds in Halloween and Hallowmas. Halloween (or Hallowe'en) is a shortened form of All Hallow Even, meaning "All Hallow's Eve" or "All Saints' Eve".[3] Hallowmas, the day after Halloween, is shortened from Hallow's mass, and is also known as "All Hallow's Day" or "All Saints' Day".[4]


If we really want to teach our kids about the richness and beauty of our faith, then we MUST do our best to incorporate our faith in ALL the aspects of our lives, even things that seem "ordinary" or "routine" or "secularized" like Halloween celebrations. I have learned a lot about this because of our journey in homeschooling, and know we still have a lot of room for improvement.

Since there already a lot of great online resources about how to keep the HALLOW in Halloween, I won't attempt to come up with my own original ideas, and will just share the links below. Hope these help your family to have a more meaningful, Christ-filled HALLOWeen! :-)

From American Catholic.org:
http://www.americancatholic.org/features/default.aspx?id=23 - Lots of links to celebrating Halloween in a Catholic way

From Catholic Kingdom.com:
Why and How to Celebrate Halloween the Catholic Way - Wonderful reading material! ;-)

From Catholicism.About.Com:
Readers Respond: How Do You Celebrate Halloween? - Read comments from other Catholics like you. :-)

From Forums.Catholic.Com:
http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=604014 - Another comment thread from Catholic readers about how they celebrate Halloween

From Catholic.com:
Taking back our Holy Halloween 

From Catholic.net:
Should Catholics Participate in Halloween Festivities? - This made me realize a lot of things, especially on how I was so "anti-Halloween" at first. ;-) Creative evangelization is the way to go!

From Canterbury Tales:
Top 10 Ways To Have A Catholic Halloween - Great ideas from Taylor Marshall, former Anglican minister turned Catholic lay preacher and writer.

And last, but not the least, my post would not be complete without these SAINT-INSPIRED ideas from, who else, Lacy of Catholic Icing:
1. Keep Hallow in Halloween - Esp. for those who plan to do pumpkin carvings with a Catholic "twist" :-)
2. All Saints' Day Costume Ideas - Wonderful ideas/alternative ideas for Halloween costumes! ;-)
3. All Saints' Day Costume Ideas for Boys
4. All Saints' Day Costume Ideas for Girls
5. All Saints' Day Cookie Ideas - Ideas on how to make yummy treats that help remind our kids about the holiness and awesomeness of our beloved Saints! ;-)
6. All Saints' Day Party Games -  Our homeschool group, ROCKERs, will be having a post-All Saints' Day party on Nov 4 and I am excited to try these!
7. Saint Craft - I want to do this with our kids and if time permits with the ROCKERs on Nov 4 too!
8. All Saints' Day Link-up - Lacy's link-up post last year has more ideas! ;-)