All Souls' Day, also called The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, is a day of prayer and remembrance for the faithful departed, observed by Christians on 2 November. Through prayer, intercessions, alms and visits to cemeteries, people commemorate the poor souls in purgatory and gain them indulgences.
All Souls' Day by William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Nun visiting a graveyard at All Souls' Day
Kollyva offerings of boiled wheat blessed liturgically on Soul Saturday (Psychosabbaton)
All Souls' Day, painting by Jakub Schikaneder, 1888
Allhallowtide, Hallowtide, Allsaintstide, or the Hallowmas season is the Western Christian season encompassing the triduum of All Saints' Eve (Halloween), All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, as well as the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church and Remembrance Sunday in some traditions. The period begins on 31 October annually. Allhallowtide is a "time to remember the dead, including martyrs, saints, and all faithful departed Christians." The present date of Hallowmas and thus also of its vigil (Hallowe'en) was established for Rome perhaps by Pope Gregory III (731–741) and was made of obligation throughout the Frankish Empire by Louis the Pious in 835. Elsewhere, other dates were observed even later, with the date in Ireland being 20 April. In the early 11th century, the modern date of All Souls' Day was popularized, after Abbot Odilo established it as a day for the monks of Cluny and associated monasteries to pray for the dead.
The Church Militant and the Church Triumphant, fresco by Andrea da Firenze in Santa Maria Novella, c. A.D. 1365
Many of the remains of the martyrs of the ancient Church lie in the catacombs
Hallowe'en decorations in Eifeler Hof, Germany.
A cemetery outside an Evangelical Lutheran church (Church of Sweden) in Röke, Sweden on the feast of All Hallows. Flowers and lighted candles are placed by relatives on the graves of their deceased loved ones.