The Feast of All Saints
Reflections on the celebration of Halloween
The meaning of Halloween is “All hallow’s eve”, a term that comes from the old English language, and which means “eve of all saints”. It refers to the night of October 31, the eve of the Feast of All Saints. However, the ancient Anglo-Saxon custom has robbed it of its strict religious meaning to instead celebrate the night of fear, terror, witches and ghosts. Halloween marks a sad return to ancient paganism, a trend that unfortunately has also spread among Hispanic peoples.
Halloween is a pagan celebration with consumerist interests. The consumer culture encourages and takes advantage of opportunities to do business, no matter how. Hollywood has contributed to the spread of Halloween with a series of films in which graphic violence and murders create a morbid state of anguish and anxiety in the viewer. These movies are seen by adults and children, creating in the latter fear and a wrong idea of reality. Halloween today is, above all, big business. Masks, costumes, sweets, make-up and other necessary items are more than enough of an engine for some businessmen to promote the “consumption of terror”.
However, for believers it is the feast of All Saints that truly has relevance and reflects faith in the future for those who hope and live according to the Gospel preached by Jesus. Respect for the mortal remains of those who died in the faith and their memory is part of the veneration of those who have been “temples of the Holy Spirit.”
Given all these elements that make up Halloween today, it is worth reflecting and asking yourself the following questions:
What experience (moral or religious) remains in the child who, to “have fun” has used costumes of devils, witches, dead people, monsters, vampires and other characters related mainly to evil and the occult, especially when television and movies identify these costumes with characters contrary to healthy morals, faith and the values of the Gospel.? Let’s see what Our Lord Jesus Christ says about evil and evil in Mt. 7,17. Mt 6.13. The Word of God speaks to us about this also in 1 Pe. 3, 8-12.
How can we justify as parents of a Christian family that our children celebrate Halloween as a pagan holiday? Wouldn’t that be incongruous?
With the costumes and the identification that exists with the characters of the cinema… are we not promoting in the conscience of the little ones that evil and the devil are only fantasies, an unreal world that has nothing to do with our lives and that so they do not affect us? The Word of God affirms the existence of the devil, the enemy of God in St. 4,7 1 Pe 5,18 Eph. 6.11 Lk. 4.2 Lk. 25, 41
Isn’t Halloween another form of religious relativism with which we are allowing our Christian faith and life to be weakened?
If we accept all these ideas and take them lightly for “the sake of children’s fun” What will we say to young people (who during their childhood we allowed to play Halloween) when they go to witch doctors, mediums, card spreaders and all those activities contrary to what the Holy Scripture teaches us?
It is that we, as Christians, messengers of peace, love, justice, bearers of light for the world, can we identify ourselves with an activity where all its elements speak of fear, injustice, fear and darkness? On the subject of peace we can read Phil. 4.9 Gal. 5.22. See what Jesus says about this in Mt. 5,14 Jn. 8.12
If we are honest with ourselves and seek to be faithful to the values of the Catholic Church, we will come to the conclusion that Halloween has nothing to do with our Christian memory of the Faithful Departed, and that all its connotations are harmful and contrary to the elementary principles of our faith.
Alternative celebrations to Halloween in Spain
There are many activities that can be done as an alternative to Halloween, depending on your age. For example, for children belonging to a parish community, a school, a movement or within their own family, the suggestions are:
– Dressing up as Saints: The little ones can choose a Saint costume they want.
– Learn the highlights of the biography of a Saint or some of his most famous phrases. Then, meeting as a group, they can show what they have learned.
– Draw a Saint, put his name and hang it in a visible place at home, in the class at school or in the parish.
For young people, you can:
– Organize a cinema forum to see some of the many films on the lives of the Saints.
– Take ‘selfies’ dressed as Saints and share them on Instagram or Facebook.
– Come up with a hashtag for Twitter showing that we are celebrating Holywins instead of Halloween. An example would be #YoCelebroHolywins
In this sense, the Diocese of Alcalá de Henares (Spain) has organized since 2009 a peculiar celebration for the eve of All Saints’ Day that includes Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, evangelization and costumes of saints for the little ones, as an alternative to Halloween. . They were the pioneers in Spain and the name of this alternative party is ‘Holywins’. This initiative was born in the diocese of Paris in 2002.
“Holywins” is a play on words meaning “holiness wins.” The phonetic similarity with the word “Halloween” is not accidental, since Holywins intends to help reinforce the Christian festival of All Saints, in the face of the increasing eclipse that it is suffering due to the powerful implantation of the pagan festival of Halloween.
We do not want to share the cult of death and the exaltation of the monstrous or ugly that it brings with it, since what is typical of Christians is to celebrate the triumph of life and promote beauty and good.
For this reason, in the face of the costumes of the undead that fill the streets of cities every October 31, more and more dioceses are joining the celebration of Holywins to transmit the same message: life is beautiful and its goal it is Heaven, there are many who have already arrived and we are all called to share their happiness, because we can all be saints.
Holywins 2022 schedules in the Diocese of Alcalá de Henares
Holywins for children, October 31
At 5:00 p.m., reception in the Plaza del Obispado
At 5:30 p.m.: games and workshops for ages + snack (2 €).
At 6:30 p.m.: Procession to the cathedral and prayer.
7:30 p.m.: Mass in the Magistral Cathedral for each child with their family.
For a better organization it is necessary to register in Holywins 2022. The way to do it is by accessing the address https://forms.gle/LcfredYLA6VnGiFD7
Holywins for young people, from October 31 to November 1
Age: From 12 to 17 years old (1st year of ESO – 1st year of high school)
Price: €2
Necessities: Bag and mat
Plan
6:30 p.m.: Welcome in Bernardas.
7:30 p.m.: Mass in the Cathedral
9:00 p.m.: Dinner at Bernardas
11:00 p.m.: Beginning of the worship shifts. In parallel, in the Games Room, various activities.
08:00 a.m.: Prayer of Lauds and chocolate with churros.
Holywins party gathering is especially important for teenagers. They are the ones who live the overwhelming entrance of Halloween more closely in their groups of friends, schools and institutes. The night of Holywins is dedicated to them in a special way with a sense of celebration and also of adoration and reparation.
It is necessary to register at https://forms.gle/SULZ3xydDPGBYwWH7
Holywins opening hours in the diocese of Getafe:
More than twenty parishes in the Diocese of Getafe will celebrate on October 31 and November 1 (All Saints’ Day) the festival of ‘Holywins, holiness wins’, in which both children and adults are invited to participate .
In this festival, the little ones dress up as their favorite saints to make known the lives of these people, they participate in fun games and share a snack.
Among the parishes that have joined this initiative, Santa María Magdalena (Ciempozuelos) stands out, where a festive celebration has been organized for October 31 with children between the ages of five and 12 in Plaza Ventura Rodríguez. Between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. there will be games, competitions and prizes for the best saint costumes. Eucharist will be celebrated at 7:00 p.m.
At night it will be the young people who will participate in a pilgrimage for holiness from the Cathedral of Getafe to the Cerro de los Ángeles, together with other parishes of the archpriesthood (Pinto, San Martín de la Vega, and Valdemoro). At 10:00 p.m. they will share the prayer of the Holy Hour with the diocesan seminarians in the hermitage of Our Lady of the Angels.
The parishes of Móstoles have also joined this initiative, organizing various activities for children and adults.
In the San José Obrero Parish (c/Coronel de Palma, 4), the appointment for children between the ages of three and 12, who are invited to attend dressed as saints, will begin at 5:00 p.m. with a snack (pre-registration is required). Next, there will be a costume parade in which each participant will have to briefly tell the story of the saint they are dressed as. There will be prizes for the most inventive and creative.
Afterwards, a gymkhana will be held, and then the winners will be announced and the prizes will be awarded.
At 7:30 p.m. a Eucharist will be celebrated presided over by the parish priest, Antonio Izquierdo. Afterwards there will be an exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and the missionary sending of the adults, who will go out to evangelize through the streets of the town.
At 11:00 p.m. testimonies and experiences of the missionaries and of all those who have received the announcement of salvation and have wanted to welcome it and enter the parish will be heard.
The journey for holiness will end with the blessing and reservation of the Blessed Sacrament at midnight.
In the San Juan de Ávila Parish (c/Orquídea, 5. Móstoles) the festival of holiness will be celebrated at 5:00 p.m., with various activities for children and adults: gymkhana, snack, prayer and saint costume contest.
In Navalcarnero, the post-communion group of the Nuestra Señora de la Asunción Parish prepares a different activity every year to celebrate the eve of All Saints’ Day. On this occasion they have prepared a giant map of Spain, as a puzzle, with its saints distributed by territory and a special face to customize.
In addition, the children will enjoy a snack and various games to celebrate holiness.
The Parishes of Santos Justo y Pastor (Parla), San Martín Obispo (San Martín de Valdeiglesias) and Santiago Apóstol (Sevilla la Nueva) will also celebrate the Holywins festival from 5:30 p.m. with a saint costume contest, games, a snack and the celebration of the eucharist.
In the municipality of Pinto, in the San Francisco Javier Parish, a vigil will be held on October 31, from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. On Sunday, November 3, at the mass of the…