All Saints' Day 2026 is on Sunday, November 1, 2026.
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When is All Saints' Day 2026?
All Saints' Day 2026 falls on Sunday, November 1, 2026.
About All Saints' Day
All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows' Day, falls on November 1 every year. It honours all Christian saints, both those who are named and those who are not. The day is a public holiday in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Poland, Austria, Hungary and many other Catholic-majority European countries, as well as several Latin American nations. Traditions include visiting cemeteries to lay flowers, with chrysanthemums favoured in France, and lighting candles for the dead. That makes November 1 one of the busiest days of the year for florists across Catholic Europe. The day is followed by All Souls' Day on November 2, which commemorates departed souls in particular. The night before, October 31, is All Hallows' Eve, the source of modern Halloween.
The November 1 date for All Saints' Day was set by Pope Gregory III in the 8th century, when he dedicated an oratory in St Peter's Basilica in Rome to all the saints. Before that, local All Saints' commemorations had been held on a range of different dates. In France the traditional flower of the day is the chrysanthemum, so strongly that in French custom the flower is largely associated with cemeteries and mourning, and giving chrysanthemums as an ordinary gift can be seen as inappropriate. In Mexico and parts of Central America, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day blend with pre-Columbian traditions in the Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead. That celebration of deceased loved ones features elaborate altars known as ofrendas, sugar skulls, marigolds and family meals at the graveside.
Frequently asked questions
What is All Saints' Day?
All Saints' Day is a Christian feast held on November 1 that honours all the saints, both the well-known figures with their own feast days and the countless others who are not individually named. It is a major day in the Catholic calendar and is also kept by Anglican, Lutheran and Orthodox Christians, though the Orthodox observe it at a different time of year. The feast celebrates the belief that all the holy dead share in eternal life, and it is closely tied to All Souls' Day on November 2.
What is the difference between All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day?
All Saints' Day, on November 1, honours all the saints, the holy dead believed to be in heaven. All Souls' Day, on November 2, is for praying for all the faithful departed, especially ordinary souls thought to be still being purified before heaven. In short, the first day celebrates the saints, and the second prays for everyone else who has died. Together with the evening of October 31 they form a three-day period known as Allhallowtide.
Is All Saints' Day a public holiday?
All Saints' Day is a public holiday in many Catholic-majority countries, including France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Austria, Belgium, Hungary and several Latin American nations, as well as parts of Germany. In those places offices, banks and schools close on November 1. In countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States it is not a public holiday, and it is observed mainly within churches. The date is fixed at November 1 and does not move.
How is All Saints' Day connected to Halloween?
The link is in the name and the date. All Saints' Day was also called All Hallows' Day, with hallows meaning saints or holy ones. The evening before it was All Hallows' Eve, a name that wore down over time into Halloween. So Halloween is literally the eve of All Saints' Day. The Christian observance combined with the older Celtic festival of Samhain, kept at the same point of the year, and modern Halloween grew from that mixture.
Why do people visit cemeteries on All Saints' Day?
In many Catholic countries, the days around November 1 are the main time for remembering the dead. Families visit cemeteries to clean and tidy graves, lay flowers and light candles for relatives who have died. In France the chrysanthemum is the traditional flower for this. The custom partly reflects All Souls' Day on November 2, which is devoted to praying for the departed, and the two days are often kept together as a single period of remembrance.