All Saint's Day Children's Message

Children’s Message
Sunday, October 29, 2006
All Saint’s Day

Today is a special day in the church—All Saint’s day. It is a day when we remember the people that we love who have died. In the early church, Christians gathered to celebrate Martyrs—people who died for their faith--on specific days. Still in the present, people, particularly our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers do this for lots of saints. If you have ever eaten corned beef and cabbage on March 17, you have celebrated the special day or “feast day” for St Patrick!

Then people started to ask, “What can we do to celebrate ordinary people who are special to us who have died?” and the answer was this—celebrate a day for ALL the saints.--all of the people who have died, and so they chose November 1 to be this day, and we in the church celebrate on the Sunday closest to that day.

Now this week there is another holiday, and I bet you all have plans to celebrate it—Halloween. Halloween is to All Saints day just as Mardi Gras is to Lent—a time of fun and celebration before a more solemn time of remembrance. So I hope that you all have a fun time on Tuesday celebrating Halloween, but I also hope that you take some time this week to think about some of the saints in your lives—special people who have died and are not with us anymore, but who it is important to remember.


Let’s pray:
Loving God
Please be with us this week
In our celebrations
And our time of remembrance.
We thank you for the saints in our congregation
Who have gone before us.
Amen.

Some information for this children's message came from the article, "How Halloween Can Be Redeemed" by Page McKean Zyromski.