Halloween Traditions

[RadixLecti]

This is also posted in the apostolic forum, but I thought I'd ask here. Do you have any Halloween traditions religious or otherwise?

[AngCath]

one tradition that is semi-popular at the seminary is a Halloween/All Saints "dress as your favorite saint" costume party.
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My wife, being Hispanic, has brought the traditions of dia de los muertos with her (which was also incorporated into the customs of my home parish in south texas).

[PaladinValer]

I love The Day of the Dead tradition as well. Its a shame that none of my parishes have had any Hispanic folk in them so that we might incorporate such a movingly lovely and mystical element into the collective worship.

I missed my first chance last year to see what my parish's celebrations of All Hallow's Tide are like because I was away at the time. I am looking forward this year's celebration with great anticipation.

Personally, if it were up to me...

1. On All Hallow's Eve, a Mass and Harvest Dinner at 4:00pm. That would leave plenty of time for the kiddos to go trick-or-treating.

2. On All Saint's Day, a Mass with a candy collection for the less forunate: the children would give away a tiny portion of the candies they got the previous night so that they might be given to children of impovrished families. The Mass would incorporate a Litany of the Saints.

3. On All Soul's Day, another Mass, as well as a Day of the Dead celebration. I would attempt to have the Mass outdoors, preferably in a graveyard. Included would be the asperging of the graves and of the letters. Black would be worn by the clergy.

[Diane_Windsor]

I love Mexico's Day of the Dead custom. I once worked with some RC students to fix up a cemetery where many unidientified illeagal immigrants are buried. The parish preist (a legal immigrant himself) later said a Mass at the cemetery on November 1. The local diocesan newspaper even had a story on this tradition before I came:

http://www.goccn.org/stc/articles/article.cfm?article=359

and it's also made national news a few times.

[Colabomb]

I hand out candy and gospel tracts.

A treat and a Treat.

;)