Trick or Treat! A Mini-Issue for Hallowtide
Celebrating All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day, & All Souls Day
Dear Friends,
Welcome to one of our favorite moments in the Liturgical Year, Hallowtide!
As we prepare to release the first official issue of Signs + Seasons on December 1st, we thought you might enjoy seeing this mini-issue as you make plans for Hallowtide. We hope that it not only gives you some great ideas for the coming days, but also gives a sense of what our little guild hopes to offer in terms of essays, conversation, ideas, and encouragement over time!
We want things to be fun and festive around here—like an old-fashioned Halloween!—but never in a way that feels burdensome. For example, we embrace doing the house up with Halloween decor and throwing a big party, but we also fully support just popping simple thrift-store costumes on the kids and relaxing and trick-or-treating. Or maybe you don’t plan to celebrate Hallowtide at all, but just feel like reading about it; that’s okay, too! We are here to help and encourage and support each other in the rhythms of the Christian year, not to bind consciences with curling ribbon and suffocate spirits with glitter glue!
So today, we are kicking things off here at Signs + Seasons by gathering some essays and resources on Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls for your enjoyment.
A word on format: our issues will usually begin with an introduction by one of our editors, like today’s introduction by Dixie Dillon Lane . Then we’ll offer some links from our editors and contributors for you to peruse.
While most of us are familiar with celebrations of Halloween, also known as All Hallows Eve, many Christians no longer mark the even more important holidays that immediately follow it: All Souls Day and All Saints Day.
But these are actually some of the easiest and most meaningful Christian holidays to add to your home celebrations, particularly since they have not been commercialized, unlike so many others (I’m looking at you, Halloween!).
All Saints Day (November 1) has traditionally been a day to celebrate not just those canonized holy people who have feast days listed on the calendar, but also all the other souls in heaven who have not been officially recognized but are nonetheless saints. It is a day of hope and celebration, a reminder that all ordinary men, women, and children are cherished by Our Lord and that we all may one day reach Heaven!
Some families celebrate All Saints with costumes or a party, and many attend church services. In addition to attending Mass, my family likes to light candles in the evening with some family friends and sing the centuries-old Litany of the Saints (here is a Latin version and here is an English one — and here is the general format, to which you can add your own favorite saints).
All Souls Day (November 2) is related to All Saints in that it is a day of prayer, but this time for the souls of all those who have died. Christians who believe in Purgatory often visit cemeteries on this day in order to pray for the suffering, but Christians who have different beliefs can still use this day to honor their friends and relatives who have died and to pray for the comfort of their families and that we all may grow in the virtues that the faithful departed possessed.
Also, both holidays can really be a lot of fun!
Now, without further ado, here are our resources on celebrating Hallowtide!
We can’t wait to hear your thoughts and comments, so please join in on the conversation! We look forward to learning from you!
Celebrating Hallowtide in the Christian Home
By Our Editors:
“How Quiet Shews the Woodland Scene!”
Starting us off, we have this informative overview of Hallowtide from editorKristin Haakenson, with links to her several other posts the season:
“Trick-or-Treating is Not for Cars.”
Next, we have a specific call to making Halloween trick-or-treating both generous and safe from yours truly, Dixie Dillon Lane (click the link in the post to get to the full essay):
Around the Web:
All Souls Lanterns.
My family makes a variation of these simple balloon lanterns a few days in advance and then takes them with us on an evening walk every year on All Souls Day. (Pro tip: generally I am a staunch supporter of using real candles with real flames, but using battery-operated tea-lights in these lanterns relieves some stress with young kids on a long walk.)
“Spooky vs. Creepy.”
The ever-thoughtful Meredith Hinds has this wonderful post on Halloween and the difference between spooky and creepy—we at Signs + Seasons agree that a little Hallowtide spookiness can encourage a sense of memento mori, but celebrating evil is never okay:
Candy Binge Solutions.
It can be good to allow children to learn from the, ahem, natural consequences of immoderate sugar consumption on Halloween if that’s the way they’re gonna roll, but these Ora Pro Nobis boxes are another neat idea for kids who may have an excess of candy on their hands. Christians who do not pray for the dead could easily modify these into simple sacrifice boxes, offering a prayer for someone in need along with the sacrifice of a candy.
Halloween Alternatives.
Friend-of-the-guild Steffani Aquila has free Christian-themed pumpkin-carving stencils for you to download and enjoy right here, as well as ideas for Christian-themed All Hallows’ Eve activities for those who are uncomfortable with secular Halloween traditions.
Early Christian All Saints Day.
Lest you think these holidays are some sort of medieval invention,Cody Ilardoshares a fascinating early Christian (third-century!) All Saints Day sermon that shows the long importance of these three days in Christian celebration:
Soul Cakes.
These baked cakes were part of Hallowtide celebrations for many years; Kristin explains about them here and offers both a modern recipe and a historical one. St. Michael’s Bannocks—recipe here—are also a good option!
A Soalin’.
Listen to Peter, Paul, and Mary singing about Soul Cakes here:
What are your Hallowtide traditions — or what are your questions?
Did any of today’s essays or resources speak to you?
Do you have a friend who would like to join in on our explorations of the liturgical year? Invite them over!
Don’t forget to send in your contributions for our first full edition of Signs + Seasons, which will go live on December 1st.
Theme suggestion: Advent (but we welcome general liturgical living posts, too)
Contribution deadline: November 25
Publishing date: December 1
To learn more, see our Contributions page:
And if you have any questions, please comment below or or email us!
Happy Hallowtide,
Kristin, Sara, & Dixie
May I also suggest readers 'google' the live at Durham Cathedral video of Sting performing his version of "Soul Cakes," from his album If on a Winter's Night... It is brilliant! Oh...and since I'm old, I still use the term *album* quite confidentially. ♡
Brilliant. Thank you. I’ll add the Sea God Shony. In Ness on the Isle of Lewis, Xians made an offering (ale) to Shony to request a plentiful supply of seaweed. Hebridean crofters use seaweed ( to this day) as a fertiliser I cook with seaweed so I love this ritual. The Presbyterians stopped the event.