All Hallows' Eve | All Saints' Day | All Souls' Day
Days of the Dead
This week we celebrate Allhallowtide, or “Days of the Dead,” a period of three days that includes All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween) – a vigil celebration, All Saints' Day – a major feast day, and All Souls’ Day – a smaller feast day. While some Catholics regard Halloween as a pagan holiday, it is actually part of the triduum of feast days celebrating the afterlife. Recognizing the natural transition from life to death, Allhallowtide aptly takes place during the change in seasons, at the end of the harvest season before the coming of Winter.
As Catholics, we commemorate many wonderful festival days, and historically, they were all accompanied by large, multiple-day public gatherings. Catholics around the world have long recognized All Hallows’ Eve according to their own culture. Unfortunately, what started out as fun costumes and trick-or-treating has been turned into something far from its original intent. It is not supposed to be a celebration of evil, but rather a reminder that we should all place our hope and trust in Christ, and avoid the temptations of evil.
All Saints’ Day is the major feast day around which the other two serve as bookends. It is a jubilant day when we thank the saints for their intercession and, because of Christ’s death and Resurrection, the gates of heaven have been opened to them, and eventually to all of us.
Finally, All Souls’ Day is a special celebration where we pray for our family members and friends who have passed on from this life but may not yet have reached heaven. They are making amends but we know they will one day enter paradise, and our prayers will help speed up their journey. This feast day also reminds us of our own eventual mortality, and the importance of ensuring our short time on Earth is well spent.
Allhallowtide parallels the Church’s teachings on the Communion of Saints. We believe that there are three groups that make up this Mystical Body with Christ as the head: the Church Militant (those still living on Earth, which is aligned with All Hallows’ Eve), the Church Triumphant (those souls who have joined the company of God in heaven), which is reflected in All Saints’ Day, and the Church Penitent (those who are still achieving purification in purgatory), which corresponds with All Souls’ Day.
These beautiful feast days give us hope and a promise that, even though one day we will pass from this Earth, heaven is waiting for each of us; we are all saints in the making.
In Mission, Kathy