No, that was All Saints. All Saints was originally designed to honor the saints, those who had been beatified: official saints, canonized by the Pope. Some traditions would also include Christian martyrs.
All Souls Day, celebrated the day after All Saints, was designed to honor everyone else who had died.
In some traditions, All Saints Day honors all the Christian dead, and All Souls Day honors those who have died in the past year. In the medieval Catholic theology, those souls would still be in Purgatory, and special prayers would be offered for them on the Feast of All Souls.
Those of you with excellent memories of your English major days may remember that Sir Gawain left for his adventure with the Green Knight on All Souls Day. Medieval audiences would have read a lot into that date of departure. They would be expecting that next year, Gawain would be one of the souls prayed for on this feast day.
All Souls would develop into the kind of day that drove Martin Luther crazy. On All Souls Day, people would be encouraged to spend money so that their loved ones would get out of purgatory sooner. According to medieval theology, a soul wasn't ready to go to Heaven right away.
A few years ago, I came across a reference piece that talked about the triduum of Halloween, All Saints and All Souls. Triduum means "three days," but I've only ever heard of it used as the time period between Good Friday and Easter. It's so much easier to celebrate the Triduum of Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls, when it occurs on a week-end. On those years, I bake some bread and have some time to do some contemplation.
Today, I will spend an additional day with the dead. So many of us are thinking of the people shot in the synagogue on Saturday. I hear so many people bemoaning the fact that we aren't even safe where and when we worship--but frankly, it hasn't felt safe in years. Anywhere a door is unlocked, that kind of evil can enter.
These days, I feel unsafe in so many ways. I am most concerned about how vitriolic so many aspects of our common culture have become. I worry about the way violence explodes these days. I know that my white skin and my middle to upper class status buys me some protection. I know that I am vulnerable as a woman, but my middle age and my height and weight also buy me protection--I do not present as a typical female victim.
But I also know that when one of us is unsafe in a culture, we're all unsafe. Sooner or later, they're coming for you.
So today, I will also spend some time mourning what we've become. And I'll try not to get mired in this autumnal gloom. I'll light my metaphorical candles and think about the world I want to see, not the world that I do see.
And then I'll go vote. My state allows early voting, but it will soon be over. Voting--it's not a traditional way of celebrating the Feast Day of All Souls, but as I stand in the lines I expect to see, I'll pray the same kinds of prayers.
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