All Souls Day

What the day is

All Souls' Day is observed on November 2. In Catholic practice it commemorates all the faithful departed, and it is traditionally a day for visiting graves, lighting candles and praying for the dead.

It completes a sequence. All Hallows' Eve on October 31 gives Halloween its name, All Saints' Day on November 1 honors the saints, and All Souls' Day on November 2 remembers everyone else.

Origin and background

The commemoration is generally traced to Odilo, abbot of Cluny, who established it for his monasteries around the year 998, and the practice spread through the medieval Church from there.

The theology behind it concerns purgatory, the doctrine that souls not yet ready for heaven undergo purification, and that prayer by the living can assist them. That belief is specific to Catholic and some Orthodox traditions; most Protestant churches rejected it at the Reformation, which is why All Souls' Day is kept unevenly across Christianity and in some traditions not at all.

It is closely related to but not identical with Dia de los Muertos in Mexico, which spans these dates and blends Catholic observance with Indigenous practice. The Day of the Dead has its own character, with altars, marigolds, food offerings and a tone that is celebratory rather than solemn, and treating the two as simply the same holiday flattens both.

Parallel commemorations of the dead at this point in the year appear widely, from Samhain in the Gaelic calendar to observances elsewhere, clustering around the turn from autumn into winter.

How to take part

• Visit a grave, or light a candle if the grave is far away.
• Say the names aloud. In many traditions that is the substance of the observance.
• Attend a service if the faith is yours; most parishes hold one and many read out the year's dead.
• Write down what you remember about someone before the details go.
• If the day is not part of your tradition, it still works as a prompt to contact someone who is grieving.