All Saints Day and All Souls Day Celebrated Around the World

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While many will still be recovering from Halloween parties this weekend, many more will be taking time to celebrate All Saints' Day (also called All Hallows Day), which is celebrated on November 1, and All Souls Day on Sunday, November 2. 

All Saints' Day, one of the Catholic church's Holy Days of Obligation, is a day to celebrate saints and martyrs in the hope that lessons can be learned from their lives. The holiday is also celebrated by Anglicans and Lutherans and is believed to stem from an ancient Celtic holiday.

The following day, is All Souls Day, a holiday to remember deceased loved ones. In many devoutly Catholic, people will spend the weekend at churches or at cemeteries remembering loved ones. 

In some countries, All Saints Day and All Souls Day is seen as a reason to party, not unlike The Day of the Dead in Latin America. In the Philippines, most people head to the cemetery to visit deceased family members and often bring with them alcohol, food, and music.

In Eastern Europe, many families simply light candles and visit the graves of loved ones.

While not major holidays in the US, the city of New Orleans has a long tradition of celebrating All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Throughout this weekend, people will visit New Orleans cemeteries, like the St. Louis Cemetery just outside the French Quarter, to visit dead relatives and clean their tombstones. Some even take picnics and spend the day there.