About All Saints' Day
All Saints' Day falls on 1 November and honours every saint of the Church, named and unnamed, who has attained heavenly glory. Set on the day after the Celtic Samhain festival in eighth-century Rome, it consolidated earlier regional feasts of the martyrs into one universal commemoration. The day inaugurates the three-day Allhallowtide cycle: All Hallows' Eve on 31 October, All Saints on 1 November, All Souls on 2 November. It is a public holiday in many Catholic and Lutheran countries: Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, much of Germany, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, the Philippines and a number of Latin American countries. Protestant Scandinavia commemorates it on the Saturday between 31 October and 6 November.
Across Catholic Europe, the day is overwhelmingly about cemeteries and remembrance. Families visit the graves of relatives, clean the headstones and lay chrysanthemums — the traditional autumn flower of mourning in France, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Portugal — alongside candles that burn through the night. In Poland the sight of cemeteries glowing with thousands of grave lights is one of the most striking images of the year. In Mexico the closely connected Day of the Dead features colourful ofrendas, marigolds and pan de muerto. In Spain plays of Don Juan Tenorio are traditional, and roasted chestnuts and panellets are eaten. In Sweden, Alla helgons dag is a quiet evening of candle-lit cemeteries and family memory. Shops and offices close in most of the countries where it is a feriado.