All Souls' Day

This article is about the Christian religious holiday. For the Latin American holiday, see Day of the Dead. For the 2005g film, see All Souls Day (film). For the Chinese holiday, see Qingming Festival. For the Buddhist holiday, see Ghost Festival.

All Souls' Day
All Souls' Day by William Bouguereau
Also called	Feast of All Souls; Defuncts' Day; Commemoration of the Faithful Departed
Observed by	Western liturgical churches and Eastern Christians
Liturgical Color	Black
Type	Christian
Date	(West) 2 November (East) Several times during the year
Observances	Prayer for the departed (especially Requiem Masses), observances in cemeteries, special meals
Related to	All Saints Day, Day of the Dead

All Souls' Day commemorates the faithful departed. In Western Christianity, this day is observed principally in the Catholic Church, although some churches of Anglican Communion and the Old Catholic Churches also celebrate it. The Eastern Orthodox Church observes several All Souls' Days during the year. The Roman Catholic celebration is associated with the doctrine that the souls of the faithful who at death have not been cleansed from the temporal punishment due to venial sins and from attachment to mortal sins cannot immediately attain the beatific vision in heaven, and that they may be helped to do so by prayer and by the sacrifice of the Mass.^[1] In other words, when they died, they had not yet attained full sanctification and moral perfection, a requirement for entrance into Heaven. This sanctification is carried out posthumously in Purgatory.

The official name of the celebration in the Roman Rite liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church is "The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed".^[1] Another popular name in English is Feast of All Souls. In some other languages the celebration, not necessarily on the same date, is known as Day of the Dead.

The Western celebration of All Souls' Day is on 2 November and follows All Saints' Day. In the ordinary form of the Roman Rite, if 2 November falls on a Sunday, the Mass is of All Souls, but the Liturgy of the Hours is that of the Sunday. (Though Lauds and Vespers for the Dead in which the people participate may be said.) In the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite and in the Anglican Communion, All Souls Day is instead transferred, whenever 2 November falls on a Sunday, to the next day, 3 November.

The Eastern Orthodox Church dedicates several days throughout the year to the dead, mostly on Saturdays, because of Jesus' resting in the Holy Sepulchre on that day. In the Methodist Church, saints refer to all Christians and therefore, on All Saint's Day, the Church Universal, as well as the deceased members of a local congregation are honoured and remembered.^[2][3]

The Western celebration

All Souls' Day procession, Tucson, Arizona, 2008

Historically, the Western tradition identifies the general custom of praying for the dead dating as far back as 2 Maccabees 12:42-46. The custom of setting apart a special day for intercession for certain of the faithful on November 2 was first established by St. Odilo of Cluny (d. 1048) at his abbey of Cluny in 998.^[4] From Cluny the custom spread to the other houses of the Cluniac order, which became the largest and most extensive network of monasteries in Europe. The celebration was soon adopted in several dioceses in France, and spread throughout the Western Church. It was accepted in Rome only in the fourteenth century. While 2 November remained the liturgical celebration, in time the entire month of November became associated in the Western Catholic tradition with prayer for the departed; lists of names of those to be remembered being placed in the proximity of the altar on which the sacrifice of the mass is offered.^[5] A tradition at one time observed on this day in England was to leave out soul cakes and sing a song for the dead (see the article on Soul cake).

The legend connected with its foundation is given by Peter Damiani in his Life of St Odilo: a pilgrim returning from the Holy Land was cast by a storm on a desolate island. A hermit living there told him that amid the rocks was a chasm communicating with purgatory, from which perpetually rose the groans of tortured souls. The hermit also claimed he had heard the demons complaining of the efficacy of the prayers of the faithful, and especially the monks of Cluny, in rescuing their victims. Upon returning home, the pilgrim hastened to inform the abbot of Cluny, who then set 2 November as a day of intercession on the part of his community for all the souls in Purgatory.

Eastern-Rite Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox churches

Among Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christians, there are several All Souls' Days during the year. Most of these fall on Saturday, since Jesus lay in the Tomb on Holy Saturday. These are referred to as Soul Saturdays. They occur on the following occasions:

• The Saturday of Meatfare Week (the second Saturday before Great Lent)—the day before the Sunday of the Last Judgement
• The second Saturday of Great Lent
• The third Saturday of Great Lent
• The fourth Saturday of Great Lent
• Radonitsa (Monday or Tuesday after Thomas Sunday)
• The Saturday before Pentecost
• Demetrius Saturday (the Saturday before the feast of Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki—26 October) (In the Bulgarian Orthodox Church there is a commemoration of the dead on the Saturday before the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel—8 November, instead of the Demetrius Soul Saturday)

(In the Serbian Orthodox Church there is also a commemoration of the dead on the Saturday closest to the Conception of St. John the Baptist—23 September)

Saturdays throughout the year are devoted to general prayer for the departed, unless some greater feast or saint's commemoration occurs.

Protestantism and Roman Catholic Church

Graves lit by candles in Sweden

At the Reformation the celebration of All Souls' Day was fused with All Saints' Day in the Church of England, though it was renewed individually in certain churches in connection with the Catholic Revival of the 19th century. The observance was restored with the publication of the 1980 Alternative Service Book, and it features in Common Worship as a Lesser Festival called "Commemoration of the Faithful Departed (All Souls' Day)".

Among continental Protestants its tradition has been more tenaciously maintained. Even Luther's influence was not sufficient to abolish its celebration in Saxony during his lifetime; and, though its ecclesiastical sanction soon lapsed even in the Lutheran Church, its memory survives strongly in popular custom. Just as it is the custom of French people, of all ranks and creeds, to decorate the graves of their dead on the jour des morts, so German ^[5], Polish and Hungarian people stream to the graveyards once a year with offerings of flowers and special grave lights (see the picture). Among Czech people the custom of visiting and tidying graves of relatives on the day is quite common even among atheists. In North America, however, most Protestant acknowledgment of the holiday is generally secular, celebrated in the form of Halloween festivities.

In 1816, Prussia introduced a new date for the remembrance of the Dead among its Lutheran citizens: Totensonntag, the last Sunday before Advent. This custom was later also adopted by the non-Prussian Lutherans in Germany, but it has not spread much beyond the Protestant areas of Germany.

Folklore

The origins of All Souls' Day in European folklore and folk belief are related to customs of ancestor veneration^{[citation needed]} practised worldwide, through events such as the Chinese Ghost Festival, the Japanese Bon Festival, or the Mexican Day of the Dead. The Roman custom was that of the Lemuria.

In Tirol, cakes are left for them on the table and the room kept warm for their comfort. In Brittany, people flock to the cemeteries at nightfall to kneel, bareheaded, at the graves of their loved ones, and to anoint the hollow of the tombstone with holy water or to pour libations of milk on it. At bedtime, the supper is left on the table for the souls.

In Bolivia, many people believe that the dead eat the food that is left out for them. In Brazil people attend a mass or visit the cemetery taking flowers to decorate their relatives' grave, but no food is involved.

In Malta many make pilgrimages to graveyards, not just their dead relatives, on this day.

See also

• All Saints
• Anthesteria
• Day of the Dead
• Office of the Dead
• Prayer for the dead
• Samhain, Halloween
• Saturday of Souls
• Soul cake
• Thursday of the Dead
• Zaduszki

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Mershman 1907.
2. ^ Laura Huff Hileman (2003). "What is All Saint's Day?". The Upper Room (United Methodist Church). http://upperroom.org/askjulian/default.asp?act=answer&itemid=276387. Retrieved 31 October 2011. "Saints are just people who are trying to listen to God's word and live God's call. This is "the communion of saints" that we speak of in the Apostle's Creed -- that fellowship of believers that reaches beyond time and place, even beyond death. Remembering the saints who have helped extend and enliven God's kingdom is what All Saints Day is about." 
3. ^ The Rev. J. Richard Peck (2011). "Do United Methodists believe in saints?". The United Methodist Church. http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lwL4KnN1LtH&b=4746355&ct=3166373. Retrieved 31 October 2011. "We also recognize and celebrate All Saints' Day (Nov. 1) and "all the saints who from their labors rest." United Methodists call people "saints" because they exemplified the Christian life. In this sense, every Christian can be considered a saint." 
4. ^ The decree ordaining the celebration is printed in the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum (Saec. VI, pt. i. p. 585).
5. ^ ^{a b} Anonymous 1911.

References

•  Mershman, Francis (1907). "All Souls' Day". Catholic Encyclopedia. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Anonymous (1911). "All Souls' Day". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Customs, History and Facts on All Souls Day
• All Souls' Day at NetGlimse.com
• American Catholic: Feast of All Souls
• Saturday before PentecostPDF (17.1 KiB) Notes on Russian Orthodox observance by N. Bulgakov
• Saturday of Meatfare WeekPDF (13.9 KiB) N. Bulgakov
• Photos of All Souls' Day, Calcutta