Being at a Catholic school has its perks. Not only do students get all the legal holidays off there are also a few extra Catholic holidays tossed in. One of those is November 1st which is known as All Saints Day in the Catholic community. As the fall season approached the class would be told the story of this holiday and its association with perhaps the most popular non-holiday for a kid – Halloween. Each year the story of Halloween and All Saints Day would be told to the children of St. Albert’s by their teacher and it went a little like this.
It seems that a long, long time ago there was a festival that happened each fall after all the farming was done and all the crops were picked. Before the farmers would settle in for the long winter, they would have this festival that they called Samhain which meant “Summer’s End” on October 31st. It was felt that on this day of transition that ghosts could walk amongst the living, which raised an eyebrow or two. Missionaries who visited these villages did not like this festival and wanted to get rid of it but the farmers insisted upon their summer end party and would not give it up. The Pope of this era (about 900 AD) decided to move one of the Christian celebrations – All Saints Day – to November 1st in the hope that the summer’s end celebration would coincide with the Catholic holiday for the Saints. A new tradition was started where people would dress up as their favorite Saint and go out door to door collecting food for the needy, a practice known as “souling” the day before All Saints Day (Oct 31st).
The sisters would then tell the students that October 31st became known as Hallow Day Eve, the day before All Saints day and through the centuries it evolved into “Halloween”.
As class would end at St. Albert’s each Halloween day the students would make plans to meet in small groups and go out and perform what was essentially the modern version of souling – Trick or Treat.
The goal of children trick or treating is simple, go as quickly as you can to as many homes as you can to collect as much candy as you can. There was one exception to this rule; it was a visit to the convent to see the nuns. To reach the convent you had to cross the huge St. Albert parking lot. There were not any houses there which meant you were giving up valuable trick or treat time to visit the convent, but it was always worth it.
There was usually a line at the convent since St. Albert’s had eight grades. Children of all ages would go to the door, yell trick or treat, and be rewarded with candy. However, what made this visit so unique is that the nuns would try and guess who the children were, which just made the whole event of trick or treating that much more fun. The visit to the convent was always the highlight of Halloween. The next day the children went to Church to celebrate All Saints Day and there was plenty to celebrate – for in the minds of the children of St. Albert’s their Catholic ancestors had invented Halloween so that they could go out trick or treating, then they were given the next day off. Halloween was a great time to be from St. Albert’s the Great Church for sure!
