All Saints From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the Christian holiday. For other meanings see All Saints (disambiguation) and All Hallows (disambiguation) All Saints Day All Saints in Poland -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Official name Feast of All Saints Also called All Hallows Day Observed by Western Christians Type Christian Date 1 November Related to All Souls Day The festival of All Saints, also sometimes known as All Hallows or Hallowmas ("hallows" meaning "saints," and "mas" meaning "Mass"), is a feast celebrated in their honour. All Saints is also a Christian formula invoking all the faithful saints and martyrs, known or unknown. The Western Christian holiday (called Festum omnium sanctorum in Latin) falls on November 1, followed by All Souls' Day on November 2, and is a Holy Day of Obligation in the Latin Rite Roman Catholic Church, with a vigil and an octave. Among the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholics, All Saints follows the earlier tradition kept by the whole Church of keeping the feast on the first Sunday after Pentecost and as such marks the close of the Easter season. Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Customs 3 See also 4 External links [edit] History Common commemorations by several churches of the death of martyrs began to be celebrated in the 4th century. The first trace of a general celebration is attested in Antioch on the Sunday after Pentecost. This custom is also referred to in the 74th homily of John Chrysostom (407) and is maintained to the present day in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Irish also maintained this date, but the German church began the custom of celebrating it on November 1. (It was once commonly held to be fixed by the date of Samhain, but as Samhain was a pagan Irish feast, the German origin makes this claim dubious.) It spread from there until the date of festival was universally changed to November 1 by Pope Gregory III (731–741). He designated November 1 as the date of the anniversary of the consecration of a chapel in St. Peter's for the relics "of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs ballocks and confessors, of all the just made perfect who are at rest throughout the world". By the time of the reign of Charlemagne, the November festival of All Saints was widely celebrated. November 1 was decreed a day of obligation by the Frankish king Louis the Pious in 835 issued "at the instance of Pope Gregory IV and with the assent of all the bishops." [edit] Customs In Portugal, Spain and Mexico, ofrendas (offerings) are made on this day. In Spain, the play Don Juan Tenorio is traditionally performed. In Portugal and France, people offer flowers to dead relatives. In Poland, Lithuania, Croatia, and Germany, the tradition is to light candles and visit the graves of deceased relatives. In the Philippines, the day is spent visiting the graves of deceased relatives, where they offer prayers, lay flowers, and light candles, often in a picnic-like atmosphere. In English speaking countries, the festival is traditionally celebrated with the hymn "For All the Saints" by William Walsham How. The most familiar tune for this hymn is Sine Nomine by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The festival was retained after the Reformation in the calendar of the Church of England and in many Lutheran churches. In the Lutheran churches, such as the Church of Sweden, it assumes a role of general commemoration of the dead (similar to the All Souls commemoration in the Eastern Orthodox Church that takes place two Saturdays before the beginning of Lent). In the Swedish calendar, the observance takes place on the first Saturday of November. In many Lutheran Churches however, the festival has fallen into disuse.
