All-Saints' Day

All-Saints' Day, in Old English All-Hallows, All-Hallowmas, or simply Hallowmas, a church festival, introduced because of the impossibility of keeping a separate day for every saint. As early as the 4th century, on the cessation of the persecution, the Sunday after Easter was appointed by the Greek Church for commemorating the martyrs generally; and in the Church of Rome a similar festival was introduced about 610, when the old heathen Pantheon (the present Rotonda, or Santa Maria dei Martiri) was consecrated on 13th March. But the real festival of All Saints was first regularly instituted by Gregory IV. in 835, on 1st November. The choice of the day was doubtless determined by the fact that November 1, or rather the eve or night preceding it, was one of the four great festivals (1st February, 1st May, 1st August, and 1st November) of the heathen nations of the north; for it was the policy of the church to supplant heathen by Christian observances. See BELTANE and HALLOWEEN.