What We Did for All Saints and What We are Doing for All Souls

Every year I pull out the sewing machine in October to make costumes. Our kids dress up as saints and go to a really cute All Saints party on All Hallows Eve (like a Christmas party on Christmas Eve), and play games for candy.

Left to Right: St. Felicity, St. Perpetua, and St. Kateri

I squeezed all of the sewing into the Saturday a week before the party, because I knew it would be the only time I could sew. M has been taking the girls to the grocery store on Saturday mornings and I am left in silent-house-only-the-baby-bliss for however long he takes. That is how I started my sewing, and I ended it by mid-afternoon. So, not so bad.

This is what they did when I asked them to look prayerful. Apparently it is prayerful to eat plants…

Our saints this year: Sts. Felicity and Perpetua who were martyred together in Carthage in the 3rd century and the Native American St. Kateri Tekakwitha.

I asked them to pose with the pumpkin, but St. Perpetua was done and wanted to get in the house.

For St. Kateri, I was asked to base the costume on the image here and found this simple tutorial for making a costume. I also bought fabric that would not fray, so no hem was required.

For the Carthage martyrs, I looked up how to make a Roman stola, stuck t shirts underneath, and used our hand dyed play scarves for on top.  And in Minnesota, the appropriate food wear of sandals would not work, so we went with church shoes for the martyrs and moccasin slippers for St. Kateri.

On Halloween, due to sleep issues/bedtime, we decided on T and I staying home from the party so he could have his bedtime. And by a miracle of St. Jude (we prayed the novena), this baby has only woken up once each the last two nights! Also, his teeth finally broke through!

We all woke up refreshed for the 7:30 am Traditional Latin Low Mass, and T wore his adorable All Saints outfit. Seriously, whoever designs baby dress clothes is a genius.

Please, pardon the adorable baby photo dump. I can’t help it.

Now, as much as I love a feast for all the Saints, I think I like today, All Souls day, better. I wrote the devotion today over at Blessed is She, and I am so happy that I got to do it. Because I got to spread the word about how we can earn indulgences today and this week for the poor souls in purgatory. Check it out.

We were able to wake up for morning Mass today to pray for the souls, and are going to be praying in a cemetery for them later this week. If I feel so inspired, we might make a batch of Soul Cakes today as well, but maybe not.

2 thoughts on “What We Did for All Saints and What We are Doing for All Souls”

  1. oh my goodness, what a chunker monkey he is! so cute in the suit! my kids love st. perpetua and felicity and we pray to them every night. when the kids are older, there is a really great but intense animated movie about their martyrdom. sophia was st. kateri too, though i went the cheap and easy route and got a $4 indian outfit and $6 black wig with braids off amazon. catherine was our lady of guadalupe and raphael was a reluctant juan diego. anna was st. anna wang (just found out there was a st. anna last year in our little flowers group…we had been praying to st. anne every night). gabriel was st. george and michael the slayed dragon. and daniel was the infant of prague for a second year in a row because he keeps costumes on for about 5 seconds.

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