How to celebrate the saints not only on All Saints’ Day, but all year long
How to Celebrate the Saints
We are called to be saints every day, not just once a year! We are called to live our lives each day as God’s beloved, faithful children. The saints are great examples to us; they are men, women, and children who lived their lives with a great love for God and others. There is much that we can learn from them during our time on earth as we prepare one day to meet Our Father in Heaven.
There are many ways to remember and celebrate the saints and their faith every day, not just on All Saints’ Day.
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Keep track of feast days of favorite saints.
Do you have a favorite saint? Or a few favorite saints? Write their feast days down on the calendar, just as you write down the birthdays and anniversaries of your family members.
An interesting fact to note is that the feast days of saints are not on their birthdays. Their feast days are usually on or close to the anniversary of their death. Does that sound strange? It is actually because the day of their death on earth was the day of their birth into Heaven. Thus, we celebrate their feast days on or usually close to the anniversary of their entrance into Heaven.
Keep track of the feast days of the namesake (or patron) saints of family members.
When we are Baptized and Confirmed, we typically take the name of a saint. You can look up your saints’ feast days and the feast days of the saints of your family members and write them on the calendar so that you can remember them each year.
For example, since Mary has many feast days, I chose January 1st as the day to remember. On January 1st we remember Mary as the Mother of God. Mary’s great “yes” to God and her unwavering faith is why I share her name.
When the feast day of one of our patron saints arrives, we will tell that family member “happy feast day.” Remembering our saints is a way to remind us that we are not alone on earth; we are part of a Church with members in Heaven who we can learn from and ask to pray for us.
For related posts, see I Want to be a Saint and The Saints are our Friends in Christ.
Play a Catholic saint game.
Name that Saint is a fun game our friend leads whenever she has an All Saints’ Day party. She divided the kids up into two groups. She has a list of facts about different saints that she reads one at a time. Each team takes turns figuring out which saint the fact is about.
It is fun to see the kids huddling together talking about the different saints the fact may pertain to. If the team whose turn it is names the wrong saint, the other team has a chance to figure it out. It is a fun game the kids and parents enjoy. In the end, the team with the most points wins.
Read about the saint of the day each day.
Did you know that every single day is the feast day of a saint? There are books and websites where you can read about the saint of the day each day. It is a wonderful way to learn more about the saints and grow in our faith as we learn about them and how they lived their lives of faith.
One favorite book set we have is Saints for Young Readers for Every Day, Volumes 1 and volume 2 from Pauline Media. Each day has a short biography of the saint of the day. We read this aloud at the beginning of our school day.
One great online resource to learn more about the saints is the saint of the day calendar on Franciscan Media’s website. Just click on the link of the saint of the day (or one that piques your interest) to learn more about him or her.
Read about or watch a movie about a saint (a favorite saint or a saint that is new to you).
There are so many books about saints! There are autobiographies and biographies about specific saints as well as books that talk about a number of saints. There are videos and movies about saints, from cartoons for kids to full length movies.
Check your local library system for books and movies. If they do not have one at your particular branch, they may be able to get one from another branch for you to borrow, either for free or for a small fee.
Take the time to learn more about a saint. The Saints are our Friends in Christ, after all. We can learn about them, learn from their examples, and ask them to pray for us.
Have a party.
Having a party is a fun way to celebrate the saints! Kids can dress up as a favorite saint, research the country and customs of the day of the saint they want to know more about, draw or color pictures, and play games (like Catholic Saint Game mentioned above).
Just mentioning having a party to celebrate the saints is sure to inspire many creative ideas in your children’s imaginations!
Celebrate All Saints’ Day.
Celebrating All Saints’ Day (November 1) is a fun way to celebrate the saints. Elizabeth Clare blog has a nice post with many ideas about celebrating All Saints’ Day.
Having an All Saints’ Day celebration (large or small) is a great way to kick off studying about the saints with your children.
How to celebrate the saints every day
The saints are men and women that have lived before us who now reside in Heaven with God. We can learn from them about our faith, how to persevere, and how to keep our lives focused on God. We can celebrate them every day by learning more about them and how they lived their lives. We can ask them to pray for us. We are all part of the same family, after all: the family of God.
What will you do to celebrate the saints more in the life of your family?
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