All Souls’ Day

All Souls' Day

All Souls’ Day, also known as the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed and the Day of the Dead, is a day of prayer and remembrance for the souls of those who have died. It is observed by Catholics and other Christian denominations annually on November 2. Saturday of Souls is a related tradition more frequently observed in Eastern Christianity.

About All Souls’ Day in brief

Summary All Souls' DayAll Souls’ Day, also known as the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed and the Day of the Dead, is a day of prayer and remembrance for the souls of those who have died. It is observed by Catholics and other Christian denominations annually on November 2. The annual celebration is the last day of Allhallowtide, after All Saints’ Day and its eve. Saturday of Souls is a related tradition more frequently observed in Eastern Christianity. In the Philippines, Hallow mas is variously called \”Undás\”, \”Todos los Santos\”, and sometimes \”Araw ng mga Patay Yumao\” In Malta, a traditional supper includes roasted pig, based on a custom of letting a pig loose on the streets with a bell around its neck, to be fed by the entire neighborhood and cooked on that day to feed the poor. In France, 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. In Linz, funereal musical pieces known as aequales were played from tower tops on All Souls’ Day and the evening before. In Tirol, cakes are left for them on the table and the room kept warm for their comfort. The season of Epiphany remembers the departed faithful on the last Friday of the feast of the Epiphany. The church remembers saints on every Friday throughout the year since Christ was crucified and died on Friday since the Catholic Church refers to the faithful as “the faithful’s feast day’’.

They request the intercession of the forebearers and faithful who worked for the parish and who died on the Friday before the festival of the Passover. They also request theintercession of all souls for the faithful who died in the year of Jesus Christ and died for the sins of the world. The Catholic Church commemorates the dead on Friday before Lent, when the parish remembers the activities of the faithful and asks for their intercession for the soul of the dead. The East Syriac Rite commemorates all the faithful departed on the Sunday before Lent. The Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches commemorate the departed on Saturday, when Christ lay dead in the Tomb on Saturday. These days are devoted to prayer for departed relatives and others who would not be commemorated specifically as saints. The Divine Services on these days have special hymns added to them to commemorate the deceased. There is oftena Panikhida either after the Divine Liturgy on Saturday morning or after Vespers on Friday evening, for which Koliva is prepared and placed on the PanikhIDA table. Another Memorial Day in the East, Radonitsa, does not fall on a Saturday, but on either Monday or Tuesday of the second week after Pascha. Radonitas does not have specialhymns for the dead at the Divine Services. Instead, all will bring paschal foods to the cemetery to greet the departed with the joy.