All Saints' Day 2026: Meaning, History & Traditions

All Saints' Day is the Christian feast on November 1 that honors every saint in heaven, known and unknown, and in 2026 it falls on Sunday, November 1. It is the quiet, candle-lit heart of a three-day season of remembrance that opens with Halloween and closes with All Souls' Day. If you have ever wondered how the spooky night of October 31 connects to a solemn church holy day the very next morning, this is the thread that ties it all together.

What is All Saints' Day?

All Saints' Day is a feast that commemorates all the saints of the church, both the famous canonized ones and the countless faithful who lived holy lives without ever getting a feast day of their own. In Roman Catholicism it is a holy day of obligation, meaning the faithful are expected to attend Mass, and it is also kept by many Anglicans, Lutherans, and other Protestant churches. The Eastern Orthodox church marks its own All Saints celebration on the first Sunday after Pentecost rather than on November 1. The core idea behind the day is the communion of saints, the belief that the holy dead in heaven still pray for the living on earth.

Where the name comes from

The older English name for the feast is All Hallows' Day. "Hallow" is simply an old word for a holy person or saint, the same root you hear in "hallowed be thy name." That makes the evening before it All Hallows' Eve, which over the centuries got shortened and softened into the word we all know today: Halloween. So Halloween is not a rival to All Saints' Day at all. It is, quite literally, its eve.

The Allhallowtide triduum: Halloween, All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day

The three days form one connected season that the church sometimes calls Allhallowtide, a triduum dedicated to remembering the dead:

• October 31, Halloween (All Hallows' Eve): the vigil before the feast, today a costume-and-candy night with old Christian and Celtic roots.
• November 1, All Saints' Day: honoring all the saints who have reached heaven.
• November 2, All Souls' Day: praying for all the faithful departed who have died, especially those still being purified before heaven.

The simplest way to remember the difference: All Saints' Day celebrates the souls believed to be already in heaven, while All Souls' Day prays for the rest of the departed. One looks up in celebration, the other looks back in remembrance.

A short history of November 1

The feast did not always sit on November 1. In the early church, Christians honored their martyrs on scattered local dates, and a feast of all martyrs was kept on May 13 in the Eastern church. The November date emerged during the reign of Pope Gregory III (731 to 741), who dedicated a chapel in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome to all the saints on November 1. About a century later, in 837, Pope Gregory IV ordered the feast to be observed across the whole church, and November 1 became its fixed home. Because it had grown out of the older All Hallows celebration, the night before kept its ancient name, and Halloween was born of that shift. You can read the longer story on Wikipedia's entry for All Saints' Day.

How All Saints' Day is celebrated around the world

Although the feast is universal, the way people mark it is wonderfully local.

• France: families visit cemeteries and lay chrysanthemums on the graves of loved ones, and the day is a public holiday.
• Spain: relatives gather to tend family graves and share seasonal treats like panellets, small almond cakes, and roasted chestnuts.
• Italy: known as Tutti i Santi, the day brings church services, graveside visits, and a family meal.
• Mexico and Latin America: All Saints' Day folds into Day of the Dead, with colorful ofrendas, marigolds, sugar skulls, and all-night visits to decorate and celebrate at the graves.
• The Philippines: one of the biggest holidays of the year, with whole families spending the day, and often the night, at the cemetery with candles, flowers, food, and prayers.

Across all of these, three customs repeat almost everywhere: visiting cemeteries, lighting candles, and offering prayers for the departed. The liturgical color of the day is white or gold, the colors of joy and resurrection rather than mourning.

Is All Saints' Day the same as a costume holiday?

Not in the way Halloween is, but dressing up does have a place. In many parishes, especially in the United States, families hold festive "All Saints' parties" where children come dressed as their favorite saints, a wholesome counterpart to the costumes of the night before. And because the whole season runs from Halloween through Day of the Dead, plenty of households simply keep the cozy, spooky-but-sweet mood going across all three days with a relaxed onesie or two. A skeleton onesie sits surprisingly well in a Day of the Dead living room, and the grown-ups can match.

If you want to dress the whole family for the season rather than a single night, our Halloween onesies run in matching kids', women's, and men's sizes, so the skeletons, devils, and friendly monsters can line up together.

The quiet point of it all

Strip away the dates and the customs and All Saints' Day comes down to a simple, hopeful idea: that the people who have gone before us are not forgotten, and that holiness is something ordinary lives can reach. Whether you mark November 1 with a Mass, a candle on a windowsill, a visit to a grave, or just a moment of remembrance over coffee, you are taking part in one of the oldest traditions in the Christian calendar, the one that quietly gives Halloween its name.