Using All Saints Day, All Souls Day and jack-o-lanterns to teach the Catholic faith.

It may not be the most pious of holidays, but Halloween is a time of excitement for children. In the spirit of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," Catholic religious education teachers can bring Halloween festivities into the classroom and still sneak in a moral message.

Halloween is the perfect time of year to talk about saints. Set up a saint graveyard and let your students walk through with a flashlight, reading saint names and epitaphs off of headstones made of poster-board-covered cereal boxes.

Remind children that the holiday of Halloween began with All Souls Day and that the following day is All Saints Day. It may have evolved into a day of costumes and candy, but we can still find meaning and message in n the timeless jack-o-lantern.

Here are two ideas for Catholic youth using pumpkins. The Pumpkin Prayer shows that we have to open ourselves to God, using all our senses, in order to let his light shine in us.

The Story of the Three Pumpkins illustrates that in order for us to live like the saints did, we need to let God change us so that His light can shine through us.

Pumpkin Prayer

Before class, carve a pumpkin and keep the pieces intact. Cut eyes, ears, mouth, nose and cut a circle around the stem. Remove the seeds and pumpkin gunk, put it in a plastic bag and return it to the inside of the pumpkin. Put the eyes, ears, nose and mouth back in the cut-out holes and replace the lid. Have a candle and long-stemmed lighter ready.

Gather the children around the pumpkin and pray this prayer:

Lord, open my mind so I can learn new things about you and the world you created. (Remove the top of the pumpkin.)

Remove the things in my life that don’t please you. Forgive the wrong things I do and help me to forgive others. (Pull out the bag of seeds.)

Open my eyes to see the beauty you’ve made in the world around me. (Remove the eyes.)

Open my ears when I hear your word, so I may learn how you want me to live. (Remove the ears.)

I’m sorry for the times I’ve turned up my nose at people who are different from me, but who are your children, too. (Remove the nose.)

Let everything I say please you. (Remove the mouth.)

Lord, help me show your light to others through the things I do. (Place a candle inside and light it.)

Amen.

The Story of the Three Pumpkins

Before class, get three pumpkins, similar in shape and size. Leave the first one plain.

On the second one, draw with black marker a jack-o-lantern face. The third one you will carve eyes, ears, a nose, a mouth and a lid on top. Have a candle and long-stemmed lighter ready.

Gather the children together and read this story:

Once there were three little pumpkins (point to them). The first pumpkin (point to the pumpkin without a face) said, “I want to remain just as I am. I never want to change.”

The second pumpkin (point to the pumpkin with a drawn-on face) said, “I want to be a jack-o-lantern, but I don’t want to let go of what I already have. I want to change but I’m afraid to let anyone carve eyes, nose and a mouth out of my shell. So I won’t change either.”

The third pumpkin (point to the carved pumpkin) said, “I want to shine like the sun and in order to let the light come out of me, I need to lose part of myself. I need to change. Open my eyes, ears, nose and mouth and put a lit candle inside me. (Take the lid, set a lighted candle inside and take out the eyes, ears, nose and mouth.

The pumpkin wanted to become a jack-o-lantern, even at the cost of losing some of itself. And so, the light shone out of its eyes, ears, nose and mouth. The light of the third pumpkin, together with the light of all the other jack-o-lanterns, made the night become brighter than day. And darkness went away forever.