The cakes, often simply referred to as souls, were given out to soulers (mainly consisting of children and the poor) who would go from door to door on Halloween singing and saying prayers for the dead. Each cake eaten would represent a soul being freed from Purgatory.Wow, if only this was still done, it would be grand. I wouldn't mind putting tombstones out in the yard for the various saints either, and I wouldn't even mind a kid with a costume bearing grill marks for St. Laurence, etc. :)
Isn’t it nice? We’re going to keep track of the houses we visit that night and say the Eternal Rest prayer for all their families’ departed—a modern take on the old custom.
Both of the Latin Mass parishes we’ve been to had parties where the kids dressed as saints. At our last parish each kid would read a little bio of the saint and the other kids would have to guess who it was.
Your St. Lawrence idea is awesome! LOL