Praying During Hallowtide
by Monica Pugh | October 17, 2025
At the end of this month, kids will don clever costumes to beg for candy while they are prompted to tell a joke or perform a trick. Sometimes parents and grandparents wonder if they should celebrate this holiday that is entwined with secular meaning and ghoulish traditions. But this holiday is not a stand-alone day. It is part of a three day Christian celebration of remembrance and prayers called Hallowtide.
Hallowtide begins on Oct. 31 with the vigil, All Hallow’s Eve, for the Church militant, the Christians on earth, to reflect on life’s short time span. It is a time to encourage each other to “memento mori” or live our lives always remembering our death. This reflecting allows us to live each day full of hope for eternal life for ourselves and pray for those who have gone before us.
The saints who have gone before us, the Church triumphant, are remembered on Nov. 1 each year on All Saints’ Day. It is usually a holy day of obligation, though not this year because it falls on a Saturday. On All Saints’ Day, all Catholics honor saints in heaven including those who are not officially canonized by the Church. The Church has the authority to canonize saints because of authority given to Peter by Jesus in Matthew 16:19 saying, “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” This authority is handed on through apostolic succession. Pope Leo XIV now holds the keys and canonized two new saints on Sept.7, St. Carlo Acutis and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, who we can officially honor this year in our prayers.
The saints in heaven contemplate and praise God but they also intercede for us, the Church militant, when we ask. In Hebrews 12:1 we are told “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” which helps us understand that those in heaven know what is happening with all of us. Revelation 5:8 also speaks of “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”
The third day in Hallowtide is All Soul’s Day, Nov. 2, set aside to pray for the souls in purgatory who are the Church penitent suffering through purification before reaching heaven. We pray for the repose of these souls just like we read in 2 Maccabees 12 where atonement was made for the dead knowing they would rise again.
These three days are a significant time of prayer for the entire Communion of Saints, the militant, triumphant, and penitent, who are united through Christ’s death. Hallowtide asks us to participate in the invisible beyond our lives on earth. When a loved one passes, we can hope our prayers help them. We can know prayers of the saints are being said when we ask for their intercession. We trick-or-treat by steering the day towards Christ and away from scary costumes while teaching kids about Hallowtide and how to pray for souls. These hallowed days give hope for eternal life as we pray with the Church triumphant. May we all be granted eternal rest.