All Souls’ Day and Croatian Cultural Heritage

Abstract

The tradition of commemorating the faithful departed stems from the 7th century. All Souls’ Day was introduce in the year 998 by Saint Odilo, a Benedictine Abbot of Cluny. Pope Clement V officially established this feast day in 1311. All Souls’ Day (the commemoration of all dead faithful) is a day when the Church remembers the faithful departed. It is celebrated on November 2, but if the feast day falls on a Sunday, it is celebrated on November 3. The feast day has been virtually unexamined in Croatian scholarly literature. Therefore, this paper avails itself of contemporary field notes containing information compiled between 2007 and 2012 in the Republics of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the paper there are more than thirty such notes originating in about thirty locations. All Souls’ Day is characterized by visits to the cemetery, prayers, offering of Mass for the dead, indulgence rituals, helping the poor and tolling of church bells. These customs and rituals are interpreted in this work in a multidisciplinary fashion.