All Saints Day Carnavale

By on November 1, 2009 in Feast Days, Holidays
Today is the big day the Gaitan children have been waiting for sometime now.  The candy, the games, the fun.  In the last 6 years we have always celebrated today with our homeschooling group and the kids have always chosen a Saint to dress up as.  I have spent weeks of my life at a sewing machine making these costumes come to life.  This year Poppa decided that we would do it a little different.  With him traveling so much and our homeschooling group getting together more than one hour south of us, we decided to do what ever the kids could dream up at home.  What did they dream up a carnavale!!

We started this feast day of course at Mass followed by benediction.  The kids received candy from some members at church and we then headed out to a pizzeria for some lunch.  Once we got home they got hoppin.  Children were inflating balloons, gathering ducks eggs (you’ll see why) gathering the candy stash for distribution, as all sort of preperations were made.

The first game was darts,  everyone stood behind a line and threw darts to pop the balloons and candy and prizes were given out to winners.  Of course the smaller kids stood closer to the target.  One of the smallest contestants stood a little closer with every dart he threw (Christopher!!!!, shame, shame : )

Next came,  the water balloon toss, in teams of two, the balloon was tossed back and forth taking one step back each time the balloon was caught (some little people did not take very many steps back, Christopher!!! shame, shame : )  Some children whose balloon did not fall and pop chose to pop them on someone else’s heads.

Next they moved onto the egg relay (remember the ducks eggs they were gathering).  In teams of two the object was to make it back and forth to the finish line while balancing a duck egg on a spoon.  Most of the eggs were dropped during this game and were tossed into the pond (lucky catfish)  The winners were,  Erica and Veronica.  The funny award went to a little guy who did not drop his egg, because he was holding it onto the spoon, Christopher!!!! shame, shame : )

What’s a carnavale without a food eating contest?  Check out the pie eating contest.  Some of my children, decided that pie eating contest are too messy so they took tiny little nibbles and did not get one speck of mess on themselves. Nicholas (who has won many pie eating contests) was the winner today also which is ironic since he always the last person to finish eating at meals.
Once the pies were totalled and the mess cleaned up (Poppa was a master of ceremony you know, he is a total neat freak : ), it was on to the ring toss.  Each contestant was given 8 rings to toss with prizes given for each ring landed.  Some little contestants got so close (even though at some point they were being pulled by the shirt to keep them from getting right up to the target) that they could practically place the ring on the pole (Christopher!!!! shame, shame)
Lastly was the bobbing for apples followed by some Saints trivia with our favorite game show host, Poppa.
Catch the little hand grabbing the apple so he does not have to actually bob for it.
and here he is ‘pretending”, umm I mean showing us how he got an apple.  Christopher!! shame, shame : ) Does anyone know of a cheaters anonymous?
***Notice*** No cheaters (no matter how cute) were rewarded with prizes during these games, (well maybe some candies did get into those little cheating hands).
It was a wonderful day and planning has already started for next year. 
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All Hallows Eve

By on October 31, 2009 in Holidays

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 — but then 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. 

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