Sierra Vista Sister-Franciscan: All Saints Day Celebration at All Saints

When your school is named All Saints you have to celebrate all day this holy day. We started our celebration first thing in the moring. Almost all the students and teachers came dressed as saints. Seeing that the day before they were all in their Halloween costumes and ate lots of candy that day and night I wondered if we would have much of a turn out for the Saints Celebration. I was shocked to see such beautiful, original costumes and the studnents knew their saints. All students lined up outside of church and processed in singing-"When the Saints Go Marching In". The church was full of parents and parishioners. In Fr. Ariel's homily he had the students talk about the saints. It was fascinating and heart warming to hear the first graders and Kindergarteners name their saint and the older students too weren't afraid to dress up.

It was a great family affair as many grandparents helped to make the costumes and were proud to do so. I believe the best was a 3rd grade girl who came dressed as St. Philomena with a crown of flowers on her head and an arrow since she was shot 3 times with it and then drowned with an anchor and her grandfather made her a very authentic anchor. My favorite though was 3 year old Carlos who came dressed as St. Joseph; he carried a white gladiola and a baby Jesus. He had the biggest smile.

Pope John Paul II even came for the celebration and he wore his white robe and skull cap all day. He was missing the red Pope shoes, however.

In the afternoon all students in the cafeteria gathered in the cafeteria to play bingo and get a delicious homemade sundae with all the toppings. Many students took their bingo cards up with them to get the ice cream so they wouldn't miss a number.

We had lots of thank yous from parishioners for the beautiful display of saints. They said next year to let them know and they can come to school and help make the saints costumes. I already made a note of that. Enjoy the saints as they were so proud to get their picture taken.

Happy All Saints' Day!