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Catholic AnswerAll Saints Day is a holy day of Obligation, so attendance at Mass is required. Holy Souls Day, the day following, is for all the faithful departed in purgatory. That entire eight days is the opportunity to earn a plenary indulgence each day, so people go to confession, receive Holy Communion each day, and pray for the intentions of the Holy Father. A plenary indulgence application to the Souls in Purgatory (which is only plenary during this Octave) is available for visiting a grave, and praying for the dead each day.

from

The Order of Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours and Celebration of the Eucharist 2010, compiled by Rev. Peter D. Rocca, C.S.C., Paulist Press Ordo, Mahwah, NJ © 2009

All Saints

First mentioned in the 4th century Eastern feast of All Martyrs (13 May) and attested to by St. Ephrem of Edessa (†373), this feast came to be celebrated on other days as well in the East, e.g., Easter Friday, and the Sunday after Pentecost, the day of its observance in some places in the West. In 609 or 610, the Roman Pantheon was dedicated on 13 May under the title S. Maria ad Martyres. Many see in this the origin of All Saints Day. For reasons which are unclear, Pope Gregory IV (827-844) transferred the feast from May to 1 November, adopting perhaps the English-Gallican practice dating from the first quarter of the 8th century.

from

A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957The feast (Nov. 1 in the Western Church) on which are commemorated all the saints of God, canonized and uncanonized, known and unknown. It is a feast of the highest rank, with a fasting vigil and an Octave. It was formerly often called All Hallow's in England. Religious orders have a feast of all the saints of their order later in the month. In the Byzantine rite it is kept on the first Sunday after Pentecost and on other days in other rites. "The feast of All Saints seems to me to be in some sort a greater than that of Easter or the Ascension. Our Lord is perfected in this mystery, because, as our Head, he is only perfect and fulfilled when he is united to all his members, the saints . . . it is glorious because it manifests exteriorly the hidden life of Jesus Christ. The greatness of perfection of the saints is entirely the work of his spirit dwelling in them" (M. Olier)

from

Encyclopedia of Catholic Devotions and Practices by Ann Ball, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. C 2003

The annual commemoration of all the faithful departed, November 2.

The dead were prayed for from the earliest days of the Church. By the sixth century, Benedictine monasteries customarily held commemorations for departed members at Pentecost. A common commemoration of all the faithful departed on the day after All Saints' Day was begun in the Abbey of Cluny by St. Odilio in 998. Five years later, it was recommended and approved by Pope Sylvester II, and from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries the feast gradually spread throughout Europe.

In the Western Church, All Souls Day was set for November 2 so that the memories of all the souls, both of the saints in heaven and the souls of those in purgatory, could be celebrated on two successive days. In this way, the Christian belief in the communion of saints could be more clearly expressed. In Eastern Rites, commemorations for the souls in purgatory are celebrated during the Easter season.

Throughout the world, numerous customs and pious traditions were associated with the celebrations in honor of the dead. Almost all ethnic traditions include special prayers, decorations, foods, lights, and the visiting and maintenance of graves. Some groups distribute food to the poor on this day, and others visit graves of the "forgotten," plots that would otherwise remain neglected and unadorned.

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