Each year Catholics make the switch from ghosts, skeletons and vampires on Halloween night to St. Therese, St. Cecilia and St. Joseph on All Saints’ Day.
All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are post-Halloween religious observances that allow Catholics to celebrate the dead.
The Rev. Jack Nutter of St. Louis King of France Catholic Church on Sherwood Forest, said today, on All Souls’ Day, Catholics are encouraged to pray for the souls of those in purgatory.
“All Souls’ Day is a day for us to journey along with those who are still looking forward to eternal life,” Nutter said.
All Saints’ Day was Thursday.
Nutter said Catholics celebrate the lives of those who have positively responded to God’s call on All Saints’ Day.
“We have the opportunity of the feast of All Saints’ Day to honor all of those who have attained everlasting life in the communion of saints and to celebrate those saints whose days throughout the calendar year are not named,” Nutter said.
University students observe these days in different ways.
“For All Saints’ Day I plan on attending mass, as I do every year,” Kristen Gurtner, nursing freshman, said.
Angela Miceli, political science graduate student, also plans on going to mass and will probably have dinner with her family to celebrate the occasion.
“In grade school, we would dress up like our favorite saint,” Miceli said.
Nick Ory, communication studies senior, said, “My family used to visit my grandparents’ graves and spruce them up.”
These observations occur at the beginning of November, which is the month of remembrance in Catholicism.
Around the world, Catholics have special celebrations and rituals to remember their dead.
Nutter said in Italy, Catholics go to the cemeteries to tend to their ancestors’ graves and pray.
Each year St. Louis King of France Catholic Church celebrates a special mass in Greenoaks Cemetery that emphasizes the theme of remembrance.
“There’s a practice on All Saints’ Day of the priest closest to the cemetery … doing an All Saints’ Day blessing on the graves,” Nutter said.
Catholicism is not the only religion that places a special emphasis on the deceased. Judaism, from which Christianity and Catholicism stem, also has special customs to honor the dead.
Rabbi Barry Weinstein, currently on sabbatical from B’nai Israel Synagogue, said Jews believe in life after death and the eternal nature of our souls.
“Our souls are a part of us,” Weinstein said. “Upon passing, our souls return to God,”
Weinstein said every week in synagogue, Jews recite the names of those who have died a year ago from that date, a custom called Yahrzeit – German for “a year’s time” – and a memorial prayer called the Kaddish. Jews also light a candle in their homes on the anniversary of a loved one’s death. The candle burns for 24 hours.
“The souls of our loved ones become part of us,” Weinstein said.
Nutter said observing All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day is beneficial to Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
“It helps us to recognize the link that we have to each other in the world. That reliance even transcends life on Earth,” Nutter said. “The two feasts have the capacity to bring those realizations front and center to those who didn’t realize it before.”
——Contact Lindsay Rabalais at [email protected]