All Saints’ Day
When is All Saints’ Day? When do we light candles on the graves? The celebration of festivals and folk traditions amongst the people of the Nordic societies is one of the Nordic Museum’s areas of expertise. Here you can find out more about All Saints’ Day based on the museum’s collections and expertise.
All Saints’ Day in Sweden
All Saints’ Day (Alla helgons dag) is celebrated on the Saturday between 31 October and 6 November. The theme of the celebration is universal: death and the remembrance of the dead. The tradition has roots in the Catholic period and gained greater importance in Sweden during the latter part of the 20th century.
In early Christianity, there were many Catholic feast days dedicated to saints. Since the early Middle Ages, 1 November was celebrated as All Saints’ Day, honouring saints who did not have their own day in the calendar. The evening before, 31 October, was All Hallows’ Eve, which gave rise to the English word Halloween. On 2 November, All Souls’ Day was celebrated to honour deceased family members.
During the Reformation in the 16th century, many feast days were removed from the calendar. In Sweden, All Souls’ Day was abolished, while All Saints’ Day remained a holiday despite Protestant views that did not support the worship of saints. The day was finally removed as a public holiday in the calendar reform of 1772. The traditional All Saints’ Day remains marked on 1 November in the calendar, but is not a public holiday.
Lighting candles for the dead
Today, All Saints’ Day in Sweden is strongly associated with lighting candles on graves. This tradition became established after the Second World War. Although candles on graves were not unknown earlier – and became more common in cities towards the end of the 19th century – they were mainly lit on Christmas Eve, in connection with Christmas services, or on the Sunday before Christmas. The candles were usually placed on the graves of deceased children.
Grave candles were sold for All Saints’ Day as early as the 1930s, but the custom of lighting candles on graves on this day spread widely only after the Second World War. Influences came from Catholic countries in Europe, and the ethnologist Mats Rehnberg also mentions influences from war graves in Normandy.
Seasonal rituals and beliefs
Historically, many rituals connected to death, harvest and crops took place around this time of year. In the farming society, All Saints’ Day marked the end of the summer half of the year and the beginning of winter.
On 1 November, people also used the day to predict the weather. One belief was that if the sun did not shine long enough to allow someone to saddle a horse, the coming winter would bring heavy snowfall.
