Idamina Babarinsa sheds light on the ghoulish goings on
All Saints day is celebrated in Hungary on the 1st of November every year. Originally All Saints day is a catholic holiday. On the Roman Catholic calendar it is officially known as the Solemnity of the All Saints and is also called the All Hallows or Hallowmas, which is often shortened to All Saints.
All Saints day is celebrated differently in across the world. In most places, people celebrate Halloween the night before All saints day. Halloween first originated in England but nowadays Halloween is really popular in some other countries, especially in the US, and now a few people celebrate it here in Hungary, too. On this night children put on spooky costumes and go out and play “trick or treat” i.e. collecting sweets and candies from house to house.
In Hungary on the 1st of November people use this day to remember their loved ones that have passed away. All the family members goes to the cemetery together, they visit all the graves of their loved ones and they put flowers on them and light a candle. They spend a few minutes saying a little prayer for the dead. There is also a big cross there in the cemetery where you can place flowers and candles in remembrance of the people who you could not visit in the cemetery as a result of them being buried in some other city or country. However, if they can, they travel to other towns to pay their respect to their dead relatives.
Later that night when they get home they light candles for each of their departed loved ones and put a slice of bread on a plate and some salt with a glass of water. It is left all night because they believe that their dead relatives will visit them during the night. This year was the first time I celebrated All Saints day with a Hungarian family and it was a really heart-warming experience for me to see how they Honour the dead.
