All Saints Day is Celebrated by Christians on November 1st

For Roman Catholics, November 1 is a Holy Day of Obligation known as All Saints Day or the Feast of All Saints. It is a Solemnity and the day that the Church honors all saints, known and unknown. The key to understanding the Catholic practice of honoring saints is our belief in the Communion of Saints. This is the belief that all of God's people, those on earth, those in heaven, and those in Purgatory are bound together and connected in a communion. We believe that the Church militant, the Church Triumphant and the Church suffering can help one another. People on earth can pray to the saints to ask for their intercession with God. Saints are not omnipresent nor are they omniscient. But, because of our common communion together with Jesus Christ, our prayers are joined together with the community of Christians.

All Saints Day is preceded on October 31 by All Hallows' Eve or Hallowe'en. In Britain, saints are referred to as "hallowed." The eve or e'en before All Hallows' Day was known as All Hallows' Eve or Hallowe'en for short. For more information on Halloween, read Halloween: The History of the Celebration.

Celebrating and remembering saints and martyrs, the heroes of Christianity, is much like celebrating President's Day or Memorial Day or Veteran's Day, special holidays when American's celebrate very special citizens in our country's history. In honoring the saints of our faith, we have the opportunity to remember the paths they walked during their life and hopefully lead us to living lives that emulate them and ultimately bring us closer to our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Often, non-Catholics believe that our celebration and remembrance of saints is idolatrous. It is important to understand that Catholics do not worship saints, Catholics venerate saints. Catholics do not look to saints as they look to God. Because of Catholic belief in the Communion of Saints, praying to saints is much like asking a pastor to pray for you.

The Christian history of honoring saints and martyrs goes back to the second century and the calendar for celebration of saints changed and varied. Eventually, Pope Boniface IV originated the Feast of All Martyrs on May 13, 615, when he consecrated the Pantheon in Rome into a Christian church. The Pantheon was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the martyrs. May 13 was also the pagan Feast of Lemures, when evil spirits were appeased. Pope Gregory III likely moved the observance to November first, which corresponded to the pagan Samhain celebration. For more information on Samhain and its correlation to the Roman Catholic Feast of All Saints Day, read Samhain and the pagan connection to Halloween.

Sources:

Catholic Culture.org

Wikipedia

American Catholic.org