So before we get to the fun stuff here is the 4-1-1 on All Hallows Eve otherwise known as Halloween.
(Sorry if this reads like stereo instructions) The Vigil of, or evening before, All Hallows’ (“Hallows’ Eve,” or “Hallowe’en”) came, in Irish popular piety, to be a day of remembering the dead who are neither in Purgatory or Heaven, but are damned, and these customs spread to many parts of the world. Thus we have the popular focus of Hallowe’en as the reality of Hell, hence its scary character and focus on evil and how to avoid it, the sad fate of the souls of the damned, etc.
How, or even whether, to celebrate Hallowe’en is a controversial topic in traditional circles. One hears too often that “Hallowe’en is a pagan holiday” — an impossibility because “Hallowe’en,” as said, means “All Hallows’ Evening” which is as Catholic a holiday as one can get. Some say that the holiday actually stems from Samhain, a pagan Celtic celebration, or is Satanic, but this isn’t true, either, any more than Christmas “stems from” the Druids’ Yule, though popular customs that predated the Church may be involved in our celebrations. It is the dark aspect of the secularized “Halloween” which we condemn. The celebration of pagan rituals and the satanic aspect which has been adopted as common place.
For many years we celebrated Halloween in the same way most people do but as we made our way back home to the Catholic Church we started to rethink this and for many years just did nothing on this night.
Here is how he are taking back our Catholic holiday:
On this night we carve a pumpkin and roast the seeds. We don’t carve it in a decorative way (though you could). We carve it and chop it in order to make our very yummy pumpkin soup which we only eat once a year on this night so the kids are really looking forward to this.
The practice of “trick or treating” comes from the tradition on knocking on neighbors doors begging for a soul cake for ones beloved family members who have passed away. In our house a soul cake was made and decorated by each child in memory of whomever they chose. Our evening rosaries were offerred for them also.
We had cakes made for :
Mr Rolando Blanco (Great Grandfather)
Mrs Cecilia Blanco (Great Grandmother)
Mr Juan De Jesus Rodriguez (Great Grandfather)
Mrs Rosa Eva Rodriguez (Great Grandmother)
Mrs Woodbridge (Great Grandmother)
Gladis Restrepo (Friend of Family)
Eddie Polo (Friend of Family)
We had our deliciously creamy and filling pumpkin soup and Alexandra’s wonderful buttery, garlicky biscuits.
They eagerly waited all year to watch my favorite Peanuts cartoon, It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (I waited too : ) and then its off to bed because the big celebration is tomorrow.
Not that you were wondering but here is some info on the legend of the carved pumpkin. From the Irish come the carved Jack-o-lanterns, which were originally carved turnips. The legend surrounding the Jack-o-Lantern is this:
There once was an old drunken trickster named Jack, a man known so much for his miserly ways that he was known as “Stingy Jack,” He loved making mischief on everyone — even his own family, even the Devil himself! One day, he tricked Satan into climbing up an apple tree — butthen carved Crosses on the trunk so the Devil couldn’t get back down. He bargained with the Evil One, saying he would remove the Crosses only if the Devil would promise not to take his soul to Hell; to this, the Devil agreed.
After Jack died, after many years filled with vice, he went up to the Pearly Gates — but was told by St. Peter that he was too miserable a creature to see the Face of Almighty God. But when he went to the Gates of Hell, he was reminded that he couldn’t enter there, either! So, he was doomed to spend his eternity roaming the earth. The only good thing that happened to him was that the Devil threw him an ember from the burning pits to light his way, an ember he carried inside a hollowed-out, carved turnip.
