After All Saints' Day, it's All Souls' Day this Saturday, November 2: what does it mean exactly?

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A public holiday, pumpkins, disguises, cobwebs, but also a time of contemplation at the cemetery, during this three-day weekend, from October 31 to November 2, traditions follow one another without anyone does not necessarily understand them.

In fact, three holidays are involved: Halloween on October 31, All Saints' Day on November 1 and Day of the Dead November 2nd.

Halloween, the popular Celtic festival widespread in France under the influence of Hollywood cinema, remains the best known. But, between All Souls' Day and All Saints' Day, great confusion persists. What makes them different? And why, traditionally, is it customary to put flowers on graves on November 2?

All Saints' Day

Established in the 9th century, then spread throughout Christianity, the feast of All Saints' Day, in reality, has a joyful connotation. As its name indicates, it corresponds to the day on which Christians celebrate their saints, ascended to heaven (the feast, therefore, of all saints). L'Church celebrates “its martyrs”specifies Nadine Cretin, historian of religions, actu.fr.

“On this day, we rejoice in the saints who have ascended to heaven,” in paradise, she explains.

The dead celebrated on All Saints’ Day

“Very early on, the feast of All Saints’ Day was confused with the Day of the Dead,” assures Nadine Cretin. “It is not surprising because this festival consists of celebrating the saints, and especially the martyrs”, put to death for refusing to renounce their faith, she believes.

Especially since, “in people's minds, All Saints' Day was already an opportunity to visit cemeteries and maintain graves,” continues the historian.

And, the confusion persists. The tradition of killing two birds with one stone, taking advantage of the November 1 public holiday to gather with family at the cemetery, has become established over time.

The Day of the Dead

But, originally, All Saints’ Day “was not made for that”. To prevent Christians from forgetting the joyful connotation of this festival, Abbot Odilon de Cluny created a new celebration in the 11th century. The Day of the Dead.

“He established it to differentiate the celebration of the dead from the feast of All Saints’ Day,” explains Nadine Cretin.

This new celebration is set for the day after All Saints' Day, November 2. Considered less important, it is not the subject of another public holiday.

And Halloween in all this?

Contrary to what one might imagine, the Halloween festival is much older than All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. Alteration of English « all hallows’ eve »which literally means “the eve of all saints”, it comes from the festival of Samhain, which marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter.

This celebration, whose origins come from Ireland, was imported to the United States during a major famine, which caused a massive exodus of Irish people towards North America. Originally, it was to celebrate a solstice, which marks the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter.

“Gradually, a confusion with the Day of the Dead, a Mexican holiday where we celebrate the dead in a rather joyful way, set in,” explains Nadine Cretin. This is how Halloween was given a macabre aspect. »

But if it established itself in France in the 1990s, it is thanks to soft power American, its cultural influence, particularly that of Hollywood cinema.

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