ALL HALLOWS

Today is the feast of the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches that commemorates all Saints, known and unknown, and is called All Saints Day or All Hallows. Catholics are obliged to attend mass on this day, All Saints being one of the major feasts of the Roman Catholic faith. It is a holiday that principally honours martyrs of the church who died in groups and whose names are not known. In 609, the Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome, as a church in the name of Our Lady and All Martyrs. In England the festival was known as All Hallows, hence the name of the preceding day, Halloween. The Christian feast has melded with the Celtic feast of Samhain, the pagan of New Year festival when crops were blessed, stored fruits and grains were hallowed and the dead were remembered.

All the gods of this world were worshipped on this day
From sunrise to sunset.

When All Saints’ comes on Wednesday,
The men of all the earth will be under affliction.

Children born on All Hallowstide were sure to have the second sight and all November’s children were lucky, beloved and fortunate in their life:
November’s child is born to bless
He’s like a song of thankfulness.

A couplet from An Early Calendar of English Flowers remarks upon the scarcity of flowers at this time:
Save mushrooms, and the fungus race,
That grow till All-Hallow-tide takes place.

The weather on this day should be observed as it gives an indication of what lies ahead:
If ducks do slide at Hallowentide
At Christmas they will swim;
If ducks do swim at Hallowentide
At Christmas they will slide.

As the next day is All Souls’ Day, “soul cakes” were made on this night for distribution to the poor. The recipients of these cakes prayed for the souls of the departed, interceding on their behalf. The returning, visiting souls of the dead on this day were thought to somehow be able to partake of these “soul cakes”.

The illustration today is by Aladar Korosfoi-Kriesch and is called “All Souls' Day” (1910 Oil on canvas, 51,5 x 72,5 cm - Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest). The word for the day is:

hallow |ˈhalō| verb [ trans. ]
Honour as holy : The Ganges is hallowed as a sacred, cleansing river | [as adj. ] ( hallowed) hallowed ground.
• formal make holy; consecrate.
• [as adj. ] ( hallowed) greatly revered or respected : In keeping with a hallowed family tradition.
noun archaic
a saint or holy person.
ORIGIN Old English hālgian (verb), hālga (noun), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch and German heiligen, also to holy.