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 Nordiska museet’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.
What do people in Nordics celebrate, and how?
As a museum of cultural history, Nordiska museet documents everyday life and festive occasions in the Nordic region. For example, we research: What do people celebrate, and how? What do the traditions and rituals of yesterday and today look like? And what role do they play in our social life?
We have been gathering knowledge about traditions since the late 19th century
Since the late 19th century, we have been documenting and gathering knowledge about traditions and rituals in people’s everyday lives and celebrations, which represent festivals and traditions. This knowledge takes the form of artefacts, photographs, folk memories and transcribed interviews featuring examples of rituals and traditions.
We have also collected and documented this material through fieldwork (that is, documenting celebrations on site), sending out questionnaires, interviewing people and, more recently, through digital collections.
Traditions change and are dynamic
Over the 150 years that the collections have been in existence, there have been enormous social changes in Sweden and the Nordic region. Traditions and social patterns are also dynamic and change: traditions are born, transformed and evolve in line with people, the times and the media. We continuously analyse the material in the light of both contemporary processes and historical circumstances.
Many factors shape and change celebrations
In short, it can be said that celebrations today reflect a multitude of influences from past social structures, from our own time, from migration, as well as social, economic and technological change.
Festivals and festive celebrations in the Nordic region are strongly influenced by the Christian faith, changes in society and values. Further factors include folk and supernatural- beliefs, folk religion and folk values that can be traced back to Nordic peasant society.
Over the 150 years that Nordiska museet has been gathering knowledge about traditions and rituals linked to festivals and special days of the year, there have been enormous social changes in Sweden and the Nordic region. Traditions are born, transformed and evolved in tandem with time and it’s people.
Ritual?
Over the past 150 years, research perspectives and concepts have also changed. A key fundamental concept is that of ritual. This refers to the practical observance – what people do in connection with a festival, tradition, specific day, time of year or event. Such as eating semlor, hiding Easter eggs, lighting candles in cemeteries or going ‘trick-or-treating’.
Rituals often involve symbols, such as the Christmas tree, the Midsummer maypole, waffles and semlor, or, for that matter, the crisps and dip enjoyed during Friday nights for the ultimate “fredagsmys”.
Tradition?
You could say that a ritual becomes a tradition when people attach particular value to the ritual and the celebration, without these necessarily having to be particularly old or widespread.
This definition, too, reflects the perspective of academic research. However, in everyday speech, the terms ‘ritual’, ‘tradition’, ‘festival’ and ‘custom’ are often used interchangeably. When we talk about traditions here, we are generally referring to rituals that are particularly valued; Christmas celebrations are one example.
Religious festivals
Another important term is ‘festival’ (högtid), which refers to rituals that are more closely linked to religious calendars. In the Nordic countries, the Christian calendar has dominated, but other religious calendars play an important role as well.
The boundary between religious calendar rituals and secular rituals appears to be becoming increasingly blurred, reflecting the secularisation of society. Most people in Sweden celebrate religious festivals without paying attention to their religious connection.
Annual festivals and life-cycle celebrations
In addition to the church calendar, festivals have historically been shaped by the rhythm of the farming year and agriculture. These are known as annual festivals or calendar rites.
Many festivals are linked to the human life cycle, where church rites have been, and remain, of great significance.
However, as society changes, so does the significance of these rituals. Although many people are still baptised today, it is not uncommon for this to take place through non-church naming ceremonies.
Ever-changing and dynamic
One of the most important insights into rituals and traditions to emerge from research is that they change. Certain particularly transformative social changes have left a clear mark on both everyday life and on rituals and festivals.
Perhaps the most significant from a cultural-historical perspective are the role of the church, as well as urbanisation, democratisation, the welfare state and the pursuit of social justice.
Contemporary life and tradition
As the Nordic countries became increasingly urbanised, economic conditions changed. People were no longer producing goods simply to provide for themselves. The family was transformed into a unit of consumption, able to purchase all the goods marketed in connection with festive occasions.
Traditions and festivals follow people’s movements between communities. Some are upheld, others fade away, and some take on a different meaning.
