A garland of souls to remember...

I wanted to create a way for my family to remember to pray for those who have gone before us for the month of November. I thought that leaves falling from the trees would help us to think of souls falling into purgatory and be a good meditation point for the older children...

I found a bag of leaves at the dollar store that worked out perfectly. Then, when we all gathered for our nightly Rosary, we made a list of all of our friends and relatives who have passed away; remembering them and telling stories about them. We ended up with about 25 names, some of them even famous people.

With our list of names, I gathered the leaves, a marker, and about two yards of 1/4 inch ribbon. I wrote the names on the leaves with the marker.

Then I punched holes in the top corners of the leaves with a hole punch being careful not to get to close to the edge of (most of) the leaves.

Here the leaves are getting strung onto the ribbon.

And here is the completed garland hanging in our living room/dining room archway. I just used scotch tape to fasten it to the wall as it is very lightweight.

I thought that a little something else was needed, so I wrote the beginning of the Eternal rest prayer on a 2 foot piece of inch-and-a-half wide ribbon (on the wrong side so it wasn't shiny) and taped it above the garland of souls.

This was a very simple and inexpensive way to help the kids to honor the souls of the faithful departed and to remember to pray for them to be freed from purgatory. And it only took me about 20 minutes to make :)

God Bless,