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All Saints' Day is a Christian holy day honoring all the saints of the Church. In Western Christianity it falls on November 1, with its liturgical celebration beginning the evening before. It is a solemnity for Catholics and a festival for Lutherans, and many countries mark it as a public holiday.
In many Catholic-majority countries, All Saints' Day is a day off work and a time for families to visit cemeteries. People clean graves and leave flowers, especially chrysanthemums in Belgium and France, or candles in Croatia. In Austria and Bavaria, godparents traditionally give godchildren a braided yeast pastry. In Guatemala, families share the cold-cut dish fiambre and fly giant kites. In Finland, Sweden and the Åland Islands, the holiday moves to the Saturday between October 31 and November 6.
The feast grew out of early Christian remembrance of martyrs. From the fourth century, some places kept a day for all martyrs, and by the late sixth or early seventh century the remembrance had widened to include saints who were not martyred. In the East, tradition credits Emperor Leo VI with broadening the feast to all saints in the ninth century. In the 9th century the Catholic Church fixed November 1 as the Western date. The day expresses the belief that holiness belongs not only to famous figures but to countless ordinary believers.
All Saints' Day opens a two-day pairing with All Souls' Day on November 2, which remembers the faithful departed. Because its celebration begins on the evening of October 31, known as All Hallows' Eve, it anchors the season of Allhallowtide. In Mexico, it coincides with the first day of Día de Muertos.
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