All Saints' Day

The story behind the day

All Saints' Day honours the saints of the Church, known and unknown. In the West it falls on 1 November, the day before the commemoration of the faithful departed, and its eve gave Halloween its name. Orthodox churches keep their own Sunday of All Saints on the first Sunday after Pentecost. The earliest evidence of such a feast comes from the East, and in Rome the Pantheon was rededicated to Mary and all the martyrs around 609. Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans and Methodists keep the day, and in Mexico it merges with the Day of the Dead.^[1–9]

Origins

The earliest evidence of a feast for all the saints comes from the East, according to the New Catholic Encyclopedia. The Orthodox Church in America suggests that the day began as a celebration of the martyrs and was later widened to include others who bore witness to Christ by their lives. Separately, in Rome Pope Boniface IV received the Pantheon from the emperor Phocas and rededicated it around 609 to Mary and all the martyred saints.^[6–7]

What it marks

The day honours all the saints, those named in the calendar and those who are not. The Episcopal Church describes it as a commemoration of all saints, known and unknown, and in the East the Sunday after Pentecost is set aside for All Saints.^{[1, 5]}

How it came to be

The East and the West settled on different dates. The Western feast is kept on 1 November, while the East keeps the first Sunday after Pentecost. In the West the next day, 2 November, became All Souls' Day, the commemoration of the faithful departed. The vigil of All Saints, All Hallows' Eve, was in time shortened to Halloween.^[2–5]

How it is kept

Polish cemetery at night in candlelightIllustration · AI-generated

Latin canon law lists All Saints among the holy days on which Catholics attend Mass. The Mass readings, from Revelation 7, the First Letter of John and Matthew 5, are shared with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's lectionary. The Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church both name 1 November as the day.^{[2, 9–10]}

Across traditions

In Mexico, festivities for the dead run from late October to early November and combine pre-Hispanic rites with Catholic feasts. After the Spanish arrival in the sixteenth century, Indigenous ways of honouring the dead merged with the Catholic observances of All Saints and All Souls.^[8]

Sources

Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.