All Saints' Day: the flowers, the dates and what happens

Photo: Fra Angelico, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

What happens

On 1 November, and on All Souls' Day which follows, families across much of Europe visit the cemetery, clean the family grave and leave flowers and candles. The flower is the chrysanthemum, which is in bloom when little else is and stands up to frost. In France the custom took hold after the First World War. In Poland the cemeteries glow at night with thousands of lamps among the pots. Because of this link, a chrysanthemum is not given as a present in France, Belgium, Italy or Poland.

The flowers

ChrysanthemumSold in pots by the million in the last week of October.

WreathLaid on graves and war memorials.

Also part of it, and being written: Calluna (Heather is planted on graves in northern Europe.).

More flowers and customs of All Saints' Day

Decoration Day of the DeadDía de (los) Muertos Mexico’s festival of remembrance with altars, marigolds, and sugar skulls 🇲🇽 Mexico · Custom, November

About this page

Original text by the Phool desk, written with AI assistance. Background: "All Saints' Day" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

Day of the Dead: RubeHM, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Chrysanthemum: Muhammad Mahdi Karim, GFDL 1.2, source

Wreath: Олександр Майоров, Майкл Ендрюс, Світлана Буланова, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

All Saints Chrysanthemums: Fra Angelico, Public domain, source