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There are a ton of books about Halloween and there are so many wonderful books about the beautiful lives of the Saints.  But, I'm happy I finally discovered a book that tells the story of the true meaning of Halloween and All Saints' Day.

Jackie's Special Halloween by Brenda Castro is a perfect book for children and adults to learn how the two days are related and helps readers understand why we celebrate Halloween/All Saints' Day.  



The book explains the connection between Halloween celebrated on October 31 and All Saints' Day that is celebrated on November 1. ("Hallow" means "saint/holy".  The word "Halloween" comes from All Hallows' Eve, which means the eve of All Saints' Day.)

My children have always enjoyed dressing up at Halloween and collecting candy as something fun to do. However, we have always taught them that what is most important is that the Catholic Church celebrates All Saints' Day on November 1 as a way to remember all the Saints that have gone before us and that pray for us and are our role models while we try to reach sainthood ourselves.   With Halloween being so commercialized, the focus is mostly on candy and costumes so it is difficult to have children remember that what is most important about Halloween or All Hallows' Eve is what is celebrated the day after, All Saints' Day.

Jackie's Special Halloween is a great resource and a fun book to read as a family that focuses on celebrating All Saints' Day with the Saints, our holy heroes. 

Jackie's Special Halloween is about a sister and brother, Bella and Pablo, who choose Jackie, the pumpkin, from the pumpkin patch.  Bella and Pablo are able to teach sweet Jackie about 10 different Saints as Bella and Pablo's friends come dressed as their favorite Saint at their All Saints' Day party on November 1.

My five children of all ages, teen down to Pre-K, liked that the author had them guessing which Saints were being described.  Each Saint is introduced with cute drawings by Maria Boas and a brief description is given for them on the same page as the drawings.  Then when you turn the next page there are realistic photos or drawings of the Saint as the book characters tell who they are dressed as for the party.   

Here is a page from the book to give you a sneak peek of the fun illustrations and how the book is organized.

I loved that the book kept my children's attention from the oldest down to the youngest as they made their guesses. I especially enjoyed that the book teaches various virtues with each Saint and tells how each Saint lived out the particular virtue in their own life.  For example, the virtue for Saint John Paul II is "Forgiveness" because "John Paul II forgave a man who tried to kill him and taught the man about God."

Some of the Saints were more obvious than others to guess correctly, but there were a few that challenged my children.  Families that are familiar with the lives of the Saints will still enjoy reading this book and learning about the virtues. For those families who may not know a lot about the Saints' lives, I think this book would be a great introduction to this wonderful part of our Catholic faith.

Since Saint Therese of Lisieux is my favorite Saint, I especially enjoyed her photo and page.


I am so grateful there is finally a book that is a fun way to learn and remember that Halloween is really about being the eve of All Saints' Day and that celebrating the Saints that are with God now is what is most important when we celebrate All Saints' Day on November 1.  I highly recommend this book for your home or school library!

Brenda Castro has also written God's Easter Gifts,"a story about the two siblings finding the true meaning of Easter".   I look forward to reading (and possibly reviewing) this one as well in the spring!  


If you would like to read another review of Jackie's Special Halloween be sure to check out Nicole's review post at Children of the Church, which is where I first learned about this great and meaningful book.

 
Happy All Hallows Eve! Did you know that the word Halloween itself is a shortened form of "All Hallows Eve," the day before All Saints Day?  

Here are two articles that have some great Halloween History that I wanted to link to for my own reference and to share with my readers:

How Halloween Can Be Redeemed

The Catholic Defender: Halloween




And here's how our family celebrated All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day last year:

All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day Celebrations 


 



 

Although I'm a little late with wishing everyone a Happy Hallows Eve or Halloween, I thought it's never too late to share this great article from the internet that addresses what Halloween is really about.  The article is titled How Halloween Can Be Redeemed .

I especially agree with the two opening paragraphs in "How Halloween Can Be Redeemed" :

Among many Christians, there has been concern that things have gotten out of hand. After all, doesn’t Halloween glorify evil? Is it right to send our children out as devils and vampires, or is it better to emphasize the saints, whose nearly forgotten feast day is the reason for Halloween? Hallow is the same word for "holy" that we find in the Lord’s Prayer, and e’en is a contraction of "evening." The word Halloween itself is a shortened form of "All Hallows Eve," the day before All Saints Day. In this Update we’ll consider how Catholics can "redeem" Halloween. This holiday, properly understood and celebrated with all of its fun trappings, can be a way for us to deepen our understanding of our faith. The key to this understanding is close at hand for Catholics in our love of the communion of saints."

My family enjoys all the festivities surrounding this holiday and focuses on All Saints Day.  My children love to dress up and candy so Halloween is an exciting time for them.  They also enjoy learning about the lives of the saints and dressing up as their favorite saints.

So on Halloween, my kids and some friends dressed up before we went out trick or treating.  My oldest daughter was Artemis, the goddess of hunting (she loves Greek mythology), our son was a ninja, our 7 year old daughter got together with her friend to be a BFF locket, and our youngest was a cowgirl in a ballet leotard with boots :) Hey, whatever works :)  

Saint Faustina


Lots of saint games, holy cards, and candy prizes.  Here are a few out of many that the kids played:

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OK, I know I posted on Friday that I would have a busy weekend and no time to post, but I just found this great post on Lacy's blog at Catholic Icing called Keep "Hallow" in Halloween that includes a  Pumpkin Prayer while carving your pumpkin. 

We just carved and decorated our pumpkins tonight with our family and I didn't see the prayer in time to use this year, but I will be sure to look back on this blog post next year and say the Pumpkin Prayer with my family. Thanks Lacy for the inspirational post to encourage me to keep "Hallow" in Halloween with my family!
Here's some close up photos of our pumpkins on our porch.  We cut out a vampire look for the "Daddy" pumpkin and for the "Mommy" and 4 "cupcake" pumpkins we used Mr. Potato Head pieces that I got free last year from our local craft store:

I'm a few days early wishing everyone a Happy All Hallows Eve or Halloween, but this weekend's schedule is another hectic one for our family so I don't think I will be able to do a post on Saturday or Sunday.

This weekend our family will be squeezing in a birthday party, pancake breakfast at a local restaurant for a fund raiser, my husband and I will be speaking to 15 engaged couples about Natural Family Planning, 3 soccer games, a soccer party, a neighborhood Halloween party, Mass, getting baked ziti downtown for our homeschool's feed the homeless service project and making preparations for costumes, candy, and our annual All Saint's Day party on Monday with our homeschool group! Oh and somewhere I have to fit in planning lessons!   Whew!  There seems to be not enough hours in the day to fit it all in so blogging over this weekend is going to be especially difficult.

My children are very excited to celebrate Halloween and All Saint's Day on Nov. 1.  I know many families choose not to go out Trick-or-Treating or "celebrate" Halloween, rather they think it's best for their families to focus entirely on All Saint's Day or celebrate Fall Festivals.

I found some great articles on the internet that address what Halloween is really about.  One such article is Halloween: The Real Story! and another one is How Halloween Can Be Redeemed .

I especially agree with the two opening paragraphs in "How Halloween Can Be Redeemed" :