All Hallows Eve Vigil to Begin Transgender Awareness Month

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An All Hallows' Eve Vigil to Begin Transgender Awareness Month
Posted: 10/30/2013 7:10 pm
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Since the early seventh century, Christians have celebrated All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day based on the belief that there is a prayerful spiritual bond between the living struggling now (those "militant"), those suffering in a spiritually purifying way after death, and those already triumphant over death in Heaven. First recognized as an official Christian feast day in the early seventh century, All Saints (or All Hallows) is still celebrated in Eastern Christianity on the first Sunday after Pentecost, but in the West, since the eighth century it has been celebrated at fall harvest time in order to disentangle it from a similar springtime Roman memorial for the wandering spirits of the dead. Formally known as the Solemnity of All Saints (or Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed), it is thus celebrated on Nov. 1 -- not as a holiday but rather as a "solemnity" (from the Latin for "whole" and "year," signifying that it is observed annually), which is the highest-ranking kind of feast day in Western Christian worship. This day also marks the first day of Transgender Awareness Month, with its own equivalent annual vigil, the International Transgender Day of Remembrance to commemorate those slain in anti-transgender hate crimes.

Historically, the Holy Roman Empire made celebration of All Saints' Day mandatory for all its citizens in the early ninth century, reaffirmed specifically for all Christians by the Roman Catholic Church in the mid-13th century. This essentially meant that all medieval Western Christians were required by both church and state to gather in the church to take communion on that day, abstaining from all work as on Sabbath. In specific, the worldwide Christian feast of All Saints' Day celebrates all those who are now united in perfect love with God in Heaven, and in Western Christianity, the following day (All Souls' Day on Nov. 2) also commemorates the departed faithful who have not yet been purified for union with God. For Protestants, All Saints' Day includes a reading of names of those members of the local worship community who have died in the past year, just as is often practiced at vigils for the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The Christian celebration of All Saints traditionally begins with a vigil (night before a feast) on All Hallows' Eve (now called "Halloween"), during which those gathered together remain awake and watchful, praying a Litany of the Saints that includes psalms, prayers, hymns, a sermon or reading from the holy teachers of the community, and especially silent meditation. In part, the nighttime prayer vigil of All Hallows' Eve is based on the Jewish practice of beginning a new day at sunset (not midnight). The Litany of the Saints is prayed communally, with a leader guiding the prayer echoed by communal responses. On the actual feast days of All Saints and All Souls, Christians traditionally commune or communicate together, breaking bread by taking the Lord's Supper and observing another day of rest.

The following Litany of the Saints, adapted from early medieval Roman Catholic practice based on the Lord's prayer and John the Baptist's greeting of Jesus before he baptized him, celebrates All Hallows' Eve in a spiritual meditation and can also be adapted for the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

If you really want to see the RC prayer, it's at the link.