Right after our children celebrate Halloween in all its candy-collecting glory, the Catholic community takes pause to celebrate a far more significant kind of glory – that recognized by the Church with All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

All Saints Day has been celebrated on Nov. 1 for more than a thousand years. It is a holy day of obligation, meaning all Catholics are required to attend Mass that day. While it is true that the Church celebrates many Saints throughout the year with their individual feast days, there are simply too many of these holy souls to honor individually in a calendar year. All Saints Day is an opportunity to celebrate them as individuals and as a whole.

Many Catholic schools are closed on All Saints Day, making it a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the occasion with your children as well as your parish family.

All Souls Day is celebrated Nov. 2, also for more than the past thousand years. While it is not a holy day of obligation, it has long been a day set aside by the Church as an opportunity to pray for specific loved ones who are deceased, as well as any or all others who have died.

At Abbey Caskets, we encourage you to take the time to mark these special days, which remind us to keep all our saints and loved ones close to our hearts.