March of Saints, instead of Halloween

(Editor’s note: The month of November is a month of both all saints and all souls. We hope to imitate the examples of our beloved saints to inspire us to become holy and promote their way of life.)

No, this is not the heavy metal music band with the same name.
“The March of Saints is a CHRIST-centered alternative to halloween to reclaim the sacred. Our Church regards All Saints Day as a time for honoring the saints. In contrast, halloween trivializes and glamorizes evil, the occult, superstitious and pagan practices and beliefs that are incompatible with our Christian faith.”
PWHS (Prayer Warriors of the Holy Souls), aMonfort Foundation, Inc.’s apostolate, additionally writes “..why this fascination with horror, houses adorned with coffins/tombstones/spiders/cobwebs/black cats, and menacing children in frightful costumes banging at doors, demanding goodies with threats of ‘trick or treat’ on the night of October 31st?!
The origin of halloween is ancient. Believed to be the precursor of halloween, the early pagan Celtic tribe and many other ancient cultures ritually observed a period for their dead. The Celts divided the year into the light half and the dark half. The beginning of the dark half on October 31 coincided with the beginning of the Celtic year. They believed that during the transition from the light half to the dark half of the Celtic year, the world of the living and the world of the dead merged, allowing the spirits of the dead and other beings to cross over into the land of the living on the scariest night of the year.
To counter and replace these pagan practices, Pope Boniface IV proclaimed the Feast of Holy Martyrs, and later, Pope Gregory IV moved this to its present November 1 All Saints Day.
All Saints Day is a time to recognize the victory of the Saints, to emphasize the triumph of good over evil, and to re-affirm our belief in GOD’s providence and all-powerful protection. Christian churches and schools in various parts of the world now hold festive marches/parades to honor their favorite saints.
In the Philippines, some lay organizations like PWHS already started their own marches in honor of the Saints.” Parish priest Fr. Nick Lalog of St. John, the Evangelist Parish in Sta. Maria, Malolos, Bulacan started the March of Saints a few years back. This year, Fr. Lalog’stheme for the parade are patron saints of different diseases so the sick people will know whom to ask prayers from. And after the holy mass, a party in the Church’s patio will be held with parlor games, quiz bee contests about Saints, with prizes of stampitas and prayers as give-aways.
Aside from the daily mass offerings for the Holy Souls the whole month of November, PWHS Davao members plan to do the March of Saints dressed as their favorite Saints during the Offertory of the October 30 noon mass at the San Pedro Cathedral.
A formal letter has been sent to our good Archbishop Romulo Valles and Monsignor Nards Vicente to start this tradition in the Davao dioceses.
It is the prayer of concerned Christians to firmly establish these practices in every parish.
To GOD be all glory!
Bella A. Sarenas/Contributor

The Church went one step further by adding the feast of All Souls Day to honor the departed Christian faithful on November 2. Anchored on the Church’s doctrine on purgatory, the living remembers and prays for the eternal repose of the souls of their departed to hasten their entry into heaven.