JEI {9}: All Saints’ and All Souls’ Feast Days

Welcome to the weekly link up, Just Enough Info (JEI).  The internets can be a great source of community, and I’d love to get to know you better!  Feel free to share your answers in the comments or link up if you have a blog.

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Halloween, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.

 

1. How do you celebrate the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day feasts?

Usually we do Mass and trick-or-fruiting.  We take our kids to the houses of family and friends that live nearby, so that amounts to about ten houses total.  We only stop places where we’re expected, and the kids receive fruit.  No joke.  We come home with piles of apples, bananas, grapes, and clementines.

Don’t get me wrong, we all know that we’d like candy better, but since Cee got sick, we’ve noticed the link between sugar and increased pain.  It’s been a huge blessing to still be able to participate in the trappings of the holiday, and we’re grateful for everyone who helps facilitate that for our family and Cee especially.

This year, though, we’re not sure what we’re going to do.  One of our mainstay stops won’t be the same since my grandma passed away a few weeks ago.  It feels so weird to have that tradition (that I’ve been participating in since childhood) changed this year.

I guess that’s the beauty in having the feast of All Souls’ Day each year.  It gives us the opportunity to remember, miss, and pray for our loved ones who have died.

 

Our last picture of my grandma and the kids at Halloween.  Elle is St. Mary, Moe is a tiger, and Cee is St. Kateri.

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It’s further complicated by Cee’s evening pain.  She starts out a little limpy at the beginning of the day and ends up in a lot of pain by bedtime.  There’s no way we can get her in-and-out of the car like usual, and it’s too long of a route to take her wheelchair.  Someone suggested asking people to come out to the car, but that seems like asking a lot of those who are already going out of their way to be kind.

We haven’t really talked costumes with the kids because I’m afraid we’ll have to just skip this year.

On the faith front, we also do some activities at home –  praying for all our loved ones who have passed away, coloring pages, etc.  Katie has some easy activities to mark the day that we might try if we’re up to it.
2.  What was your favorite costume as a kid growing up?

My mom made a costume out of an old lace valance, a lady’s slip, and some gold Christmas garland.  It was used as either an angel or princess outfit depending on the year and accessory.  Tiara?  Princess.  Wand?  Fairy.  Weird gold mask?  Angel.   All three?  The best.

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This was the Big Blizzard of ’91.  Good thing that bottom part had an elastic waist-band to fit over my snowpants!

We’d go into town to trick-or-treat and often change out of our costumes at my grandma’s house in order to go to Mass.

We had a Rubbermaid tub of costume bits and pieces that we’d rummage through each October.  A few costumes got added here and there if one of my siblings was at a size where there wasn’t anything that worked, but largely we just threw something together.  It wasn’t about the costume, silly.  It was about the candy.  Even so, the white lacy angel/fairy/princess costume was always my favorite.
3. What candy are you most likely to “test for safety” from the kiddo’s loot?

If we got candy, I’d need to test all the good chocolate.  Just to be sure.

 

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7 Comments


  1. // Reply

    1. I love that white-lace-thing costume.

    2. One year, five years ago, my kids were feverish on All Saints’, so we couldn’t go to the big party. I whipped up my own All Saints party in our living room with very common household items, the children dressed up, and I gave them treats. I offer this idea in case it might make Halloween special for Cee. See my blog post:

    http://luke2-14.blogspot.com/2011/10/all-saints-party-2011.html


    1. // Reply

      Great idea!!! Thanks for the suggestion. 🙂


  2. // Reply

    I absolutely love the fairy/princess/angel costume, and the snow pants underneath make me homesick for trick-or-treating as a kid (I grew up in Minnesota.)


  3. // Reply

    Thanks for linking up! I’m sorry to hear that you’ll be missing someone this Halloween. We’ll be thinking of you. June got to wear her costume to alpha last night (an adult faith formation night with childcare). It’s supposed to rain here on Halloween, so we’re hoping that we can still go out.


  4. // Reply

    I love this post! So nostalgic! I am also sorry to hear you will be missing someone this year. I will say an extra prayer on All Souls’ Day. I hope that you and your family make some more beautiful memories


  5. // Reply

    That’s really nice what your neighbors do 🙂 And I love your costume! I’m from upstate NY and we had pretty cold Halloweens too. I remember one or two with snow.

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