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St Etheldreda’s Church in Ely celebrated All Saints’ Day with a lively children’s pageant and games honouring the saints, combining festive fun with a reminder to follow their example and seek heavenly treasures. Monica Underwood reports.
What did the newest saint, Carlo Acutis, mean when he said, ‘All people are born as originals but many die as photocopies?’ Originality seems to be a speciality of the saints, who conformed to the will of God and therefore contrasted so boldly with the world.
A pageant of children, many dressed as saints, arrived at St Etheldreda’s on 1 November to celebrate All Saints’ Day. From St John the Baptist to St Carlo Acutis, and St Rita to St Thérèse of Lisieux, the costumes reminded us of the unity and diversity of the Church’s 2,000-year history.
As well as making presentations on their chosen saints, guests took part in games such as saint charades. Younger children flocked to the ever-popular ‘Saint Peter’s Fishing Game’, reeling in both fish and chocolate coins. They also enjoyed doing saint puzzles and colouring in pictures of saints.
Older children earned prizes by answering quizzes, learning how to recognise saints in pictures through their symbols. A scavenger hunt challenged them with even harder questions: Who was the first American-born saint to be canonised? Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, a widowed mother who founded a religious order and opened schools. Which early Church Father said, ‘Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ’? Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin in the 4th century.
A humorous and sometimes grisly favourite of the parish’s yearly party appeared in the form of ‘Saints Guessing Jars’. Children could win one of the twelve jars by guessing the number of sweets, such as St Lucy’s chocolate eyeballs, St Patrick’s jelly snakes, St Francis’ animal crackers, or the Holy Innocents’ jelly babies.
Concluding the party with a scrumptious tea, we announced the winners of the costume contest and sent children home with handfuls of treats and prizes. We hoped, too, that they would go home with a much deeper message: to store up treasures in heaven, like the saints.
