Why Do We Celebrate All Saints' Day?

All Saints' Day

Everybody knows Halloween. Some of us remember some elderly grade school teacher who insisted that it be spelled Hallowe’en – since it’s a contraction of All Hallows’ Eve.

So, what is “All Hallows?”

It’s the old-timey name for All Saints Day, November 1.

In the early days, Christians had to meet secretly and developed traditions of honoring the anniversary of local martyrs’ deaths. However, during the terrible days of persecution under such emperors as Nero and Diocletian, the number of martyrs became so great that a separate day could not be assigned to each.

So, one day was established to remember them all. On the first recorded All Saints' Day, St. Basil of Caesarea in 397 A.D. invited all the Christians of the province of Pontus for a feast honoring the fallen.

In Honor of Empress Theophano

The Feast of All Saints achieved prominence in the ninth century during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Leo the Wise (886–911).

Upon the death of his very devout wife, Empress Theophano, in 893 he built a church, intending to dedicate it to her. When church rules wouldn’t allow it since she wasn’t a canonized saint – he dedicated it to "All Saints" on All Saints’ Day so that his beloved Theophano would be honored wherever the day was celebrated.

It was made a day of obligation throughout the Frankish Empire in 835, by a decree of King Louis the Pious – meaning that the faithful took off work to go to church on that All Saints' Day, just like Good Friday, Easter, Christmas, Pentecost and other holy days – from which the English word “holiday” was eventually coined.

A National Holiday

Today in many historically Catholic countries, All Saint’s Day is a national holiday.

In most Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, All Saints Day is celebrated with great pageantry. In Mexico, it is also called the Day of the Innocents, honoring deceased children and infants, and kicks off the week-long celebration of the Day of the Dead.

In Lisbon, Portugal, children celebrate the Pão-por-Deus, and go door to door where they receive cakes, nuts and pomegranates – believed to be the basis of the trick-or-treating tradition in the U.S.

In Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Spain, and American cities such as New Orleans people take flowers to the graves of dead relatives.

In Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Croatia, Austria, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Catholic parts of Germany, the tradition is to light candles at those graves.

^{Photo by John Thaxter of preparations for All Saints' Day in a cemetery in rural Poland}

Reformation Dilemma

When the Church of England and the Lutheran Church in Germany split off from the Catholics, there was much discussion on whether to continue observing “Roman” holidays and whether to pray to saints.

Today in Lutheran churches, All Saints Day commemorates all heroes of the faith and is celebrated on the Saturday between October 31 and November 6.

Methodists celebrate it on the first Sunday in November, honoring members of the local congregation who died during the past year. A candle is lit or the church bell is rung as each person's name is called out.

Eastern Christians of the Byzantine Tradition commemorate all the saints on the first Sunday after Pentecost, 50 days after Easter.

Southern Baptists, Pentecostals and other Evangelicals in the U.S. tend not to observe the day – except perhaps to take the emphasis off of Halloween. Children are encouraged to dress up as saints to go trick-or-treating. Often fall festivals are held for youth, who are encouraged to come dressed up as Christian heroes – rather than witches, ghosts or other occult characters.