Christianity the annual celebration is now held on 2 November and is associated with the

three days of Allhallowtide, including All Saints' Day (1 November) and its
vigil, Halloween (31 October).[4] In the liturgical books of the western Catholic
Church (the Latin Church) it is called the Commemoration of All the Faithful
Departed (Latin: Commemoratio omnium Fidelium Defunctorum), and is celebrated
annually on 2 November. In the ordinary form and Divine Worship form of the Roman Rite, it
remains on 2 November if this date falls on a Sunday; [5][6] in the extraordinary form, it is
transferred to Monday, 3 November.[7] On this day in particular, Catholics pray for the dead.
[8]
In Anglicanism it is called Commemoration of All Faithful Departed and is an optional
celebration; Anglicans view All Souls' Day as an extension of the observance of All Saints'
Day and it serves to "remember those who have died", in connection with the theological
doctrines of the resurrection of the body and the Communion of Saints.[9][10] In the Eastern
Orthodox Church and the associated Eastern Catholic Churches, it is celebrated several
times during the year and is not associated with the month of November.
Beliefs and practices associated with All Souls' Day vary widely among Christian churches
and denominations.

Byzantine (Greek) Catholic and the Eastern Orthodoxy [edit]

Among Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine (Greek) Catholics, there are several All Souls'
Days during the year. Most of these fall on Saturday, since Jesus lay in the Tomb on Holy
Saturday. 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

Thessaloniki26 October) (In all of the Orthodox Church there is a commemoration of
the dead on the Saturday before the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel8 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 Baptist23 September[citation needed]

In Slavic and Greek Churches, all of the Lenten Soul Saturdays are typically observed. In
some of the Churches of the Eastern Mediterranean, Meatfare Saturday, Radonitsa and the
Saturday before Pentecost are typically observed. [citation needed]
In addition to the Sundays mentioned above, Saturdays throughout the year are days for
general commemoration of all saints, and special hymns to all saints are chanted from
the Octoechos, unless some greater feast or saint's commemoration occurs.[citation needed]

East Syriac Tradition[edit]

East Syriac churches including the Syro Malabar Church and Chaldean Catholic Church
commemorates the feast of departed faithful on the last Friday of Epiphany(which means
Friday just before start of Great Lent).[11] The season of Epiphany remembers the revelation
of Christ to the world. And on each Fridays of season of Epiphany the church remembers
some important figures in the evangelism.[12]
Apart from this In Syro Malabar Church Friday before the parish festival is also celebrated
as feast of departed faithful. Here the parish remembers the activities of forefathers who
worked for the parish and faithful. They also request the intercession of all departed for the
faithful celebration of parish festival.
In east Syriac liturgy the church remembers departed souls including saints on every
Fridays throughout the year since the Christ was crucified and died on Friday.

Roman Catholicism[edit]

All Souls' Day, Painting by Jakub Schikaneder, 1888.

Prayer for the dead is a documented practice in Judaism and Christianity. The setting aside
of a particular day for praying not for certain named individuals but for whole classes of the
departed or for the dead in general cannot be traced to the earliest Christian centuries, but
was well established by the end of the first millennium. Prayers for the deceased members
of Benedictine monasteries were offered in the week after Pentecost and the practice of
praying for the dead at a date near Pentecost was also followed in Spain in the 7th century.
Other dates chosen were Epiphany and the anniversary of the death of some well-known
saint, as shown by evidence from the beginning of the 9th century. By about 980, 1 October
was an established date in Germany. The 11th century saw the introduction of a liturgical
commemoration in diocesan calendars. In Milan the date was 16 October until changed in
the second half of the 16th century to 2 November. This date, the day after All Saints' Day,
was that which Saint Odilo of Cluny chose in the 11th century for all the monasteries
dependent on the Abbey of Cluny. From these the 2 November custom spread to other
Benedictine monasteries and thence to the Western Church in general. [13]

The official name of the celebration in the Roman Rite liturgy is "The Commemoration of
All the Faithful Departed".[14] In some countries the celebration is known as the Day of the
Dead.
In the Roman Rite as revised in 1969, if 2 November falls on a Sunday, the Mass is of All
Souls, but the Liturgy of the Hours is that of the Sunday. However, public celebration of
Lauds and Vespers of the Dead with the people participating is permitted. A Sunday
celebration of All Souls' Day is not anticipated on Saturday evening, as are a Sunday Mass
and that of a solemnity or feast of the Lord that replaces a Sunday. In countries where All
Saints' Day is not a holy day of obligation attendance at an evening Mass of All Saints on
Saturday 1 November satisfies the Sunday obligation. [13] In every country, the formula of the
Mass on that Saturday evening is that of the solemnity of All Saints, which outranks the
Sunday of Ordinary Time whose Mass would normally be celebrated on that evening. [13]
[15]
However, in 2014, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops decided that for that
year the Saturday evening (Sunday vigil) Mass in that country was to be that of All Souls. [16]
In England and Wales, where holy days of obligation that fall on a Saturday are transferred
to the following day, if 2 November is a Sunday, the solemnity of All Saints is transferred to
that date, and All Souls Day is transferred to 3 November.[16] In pre-1970 forms of the Roman
Rite, still observed by some, if All Souls Day falls on a Sunday, it is always transferred to 3
November.
Faithful departed may gain indulgence, either plenary or partial indulgence, if the living
perform certain acts and meet the specified requirements. [17]:N.15
In Divine Worship: The Missal the minor propers (Introit, Gradual, Tract, Sequence,
Offertory, and Communion) are those used for Renaissance and Classical
musical requiemsettings, including the Dies Irae. This permits the performance of traditional
requiem settings in the context of the Divine Worship Form of the Roman Rite on All Souls
Day as well as at funerals, votive celebrations of all faithful departed, and anniversaries of
deaths.[18]

Anglican Communion[edit]

All Souls Anglican Church in the Diocese of Sydney, a parish dedicated to All Souls

In the Anglican Communion, All Souls' Day is known liturgically as the Commemoration of
All Faithful Departed, and is an optional observance seen as "an extension of All Saints'
Day", the latter of which marks the second day of Allhallowtide.[10][19] Historically and at
present, several Anglican churches are dedicated to All Souls. During the English
Reformation, the observance of All Souls' Day lapsed, although a new Anglican theological
understanding of the day has "led to a widespread acceptance of this commemoration
among Anglicans".[20] Patricia Bays, with regard to the Anglican view of All Souls' Day, wrote
that:[9]
All Souls Day (November 2) is a time when we particularly remember those who have died.
The prayers appointed for that day remind us that we are joined with the Communion of
Saints, that great group of Christians who have finished their earthly life and with who we
share the hope of resurrection from the dead.[9]
As such, Anglican parishes "now commemorate all the faithful departed in the context of the
All Saints' Day celebration", in keeping with this fresh perspective. [21] Contributing to the
revival was the need "to help Anglicans mourn the deaths of millions of soldiers in World
War I."[22] Members of the Guild of All Souls, an Anglican devotional society founded in 1873,
"are encouraged to pray for the dying and the dead, to participate in a requiem of All Souls'
Day and say a Litany of the Faithful Departed at least once a month." [23]

Protestant churches[edit]
At the Reformation the celebration of All Souls' Day was fused with All Saints' Day in
the Church of England,[dubious discuss] though it was renewed individually in certain churches in
connection with the Oxford Movement of the 19th century.[dubious discuss] The observance was
officially made prominent 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)".

A graveyard outside a Lutheranchurch in the Swedish city of Rkeduring Allhallowtide.

Among continental Protestants its tradition has been more tenaciously maintained.
During Luther's lifetime, All Souls' Day was widely observed in Saxony although the Roman
Catholic meaning of the day was discarded; ecclesiastically in the Lutheran Church, the day
was merged with, and is often seen as an extension of All Saints' Day,[24] with many
Lutherans still visiting and decorating graves on all the days of Allhallowtide, including All
Souls' Day.[25] 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, [26] 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. 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.
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.[27][28] In Methodist congregations that celebrate the liturgy on All
Souls Day, the observance, as with Anglicanism and Lutheranism, is viewed as an
extension of All Saints' Day and as such, Methodists "remember our loved ones who had
died" in their observance of this feast. [29]

Origins, practices and purposes[edit]

Some believe that the origins of All Souls' Day in European folklore and folk belief are
related to customs of ancestor veneration[30] practiced worldwide, through events such as, in
India Pitru Paksha, the Chinese Ghost Festival, the Japanese Bon Festival. The Roman
custom was that of the Lemuria.[31]
The formal commemoration of the saints and martyrs (All Saints' Day) existed in the early
Christian church since its legalization, and alongside that developed a day for
commemoration of all the dead (All Souls' Day). The modern date of All Souls' Day was first
popularized in the early eleventh century after Abbot Odilo established it as a day for the
monks of Cluny and associated monasteries to pray for the souls in purgatory. [citation needed]
Many of these European traditions reflect the dogma of purgatory. For example, ringing
bells for the dead was believed to comfort them in their cleansing there, while the sharing
of soul cakes with the poor helped to buy the dead a bit of respite from the suffering of
purgatory. In the same way, lighting candles was meant to kindle a light for the dead souls
languishing in the darkness. Out of this grew the traditions of "going souling" and the baking
of special types of bread or cakes.[32]
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. [citation needed]
In Bolivia, many people believe that the dead eat the food that is left out for them. [citation needed] In
Brazil people attend a Mass or visit the cemetery taking flowers to decorate their relatives'
grave, but no food is involved.[citation needed]
In Malta many people make pilgrimages to graveyards, not just to visit the graves of their
dead relatives, but to experience the special day in all its significance. Visits are not
restricted to this day alone. During the month of November, Malta's cemeteries are
frequented by families of the departed. Mass is also said throughout the month, with certain
Catholic parishes organising special events at cemetery chapels