While many people celebrate Halloween by dressing up to be scary, the faithful across the Philippines dress up to be holy. On All Saints’ Day, parishes across the country hosted a “Parade of Saints,” inviting churchgoers to dress up as holy men and women of God. 

“The parade serves as a countercultural activity to the pagan celebration of Halloween and an avenue of catechizing children at an early age, and their families, about the lives of the saints,” the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus have explained.

The Parade of Saints was celebrated in various parishes across the country.

Participants were encouraged to research their chosen saint, dress up as him or her, and present their favorite quote from the holy figure as they walked down the aisle of the church for the viewing of the entire congregation. 

Children as young as 1-year-old and seniors alike participate in the popular Philippine celebration.

 

All Saints’ Day, a holy day of obligation celebrated on Nov. 1, is a Christian feast honoring all saints, known and unknown, who have attained heaven. 

Halloween literally means “holy evening” from the root word “hallow,” meaning “holy,” and “een,” an abbreviation for evening.

The Church strives to emphasize the holy amid society’s glorification of monsters, ghouls, demons and evil entities. 

Halloween “was intended to enhance the feast of the saints but it morphed into something else … no longer about saints but evil,” the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines media director, Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, has said in the past. 

In response to this, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines calls on the faithful each year to reclaim the true essence of All Saints’ Day and resist its secularization. 

“It really belongs to Christ because it is the beginning of All Saints’ Day, the feast of all who have washed their robes with the Blood of the Lamb,” Bishop Broderick Pabillo, of Taytay in Palawan, Philippines, has said.

The Parade of Saints is a fitting tradition that can be firmly established in every parish and diocese around the world to bring back the sacredness of All Saints’ Day and encourage every person — young and old — to strive for holiness.

Valerie Joy Escalona writes from the Philippines.