All Saints' Day Countdown

All Saints' Day on November 1 is a Christian feast honouring all the saints, followed the next day by All Souls' Day remembering the departed.

History

All Saints' Day honours the whole company of saints, known and unknown, in a single feast. A commemoration of all martyrs was kept from the early centuries of the Church, and by the eighth century the Western Church had settled the observance on November 1. The evening before became known as All Hallows' Eve — the origin of the name Halloween — while the day after, November 2, developed as All Souls' Day, dedicated to praying for all the faithful departed. Across Europe and Latin America the first days of November grew into an important season of remembrance. In many countries All Saints' Day is a public holiday, and families visit cemeteries to clean and decorate graves, lay flowers — especially chrysanthemums — and light candles. In Mexico, the Catholic feast days of November 1 and 2 coincide with the Día de Muertos, a distinct observance whose relationship to pre-Hispanic practice is itself a matter of scholarly debate, and the two are observed alongside one another over the same days.

Meaning

All Saints' Day celebrates lives of holiness and the enduring bonds of faith across generations. It holds up the saints as examples and companions, and expresses a belief in a community that reaches beyond death. Together with the days around it, the feast has become a tender season of memory. Tending graves, lighting candles and gathering as families turn the observance into a shared act of remembrance and love for those who have gone before.