Last year I confessed to the first major faux pas I committed in my new life in France. I was so elated to see the masses and masses of pots of chrysanthemums – at such reasonable prices and without any delay filled the chateau with colour --- huge pots of Chrysanths in each room, on the terrace, around the pool. It was a riot of colour. It was a picture fit for a glossy home decorating magazine!
And then the rude awakening….. when I was told that one NEVER, but NEVER put the chrysanths in ones home – they are solely and uniquely to decorate cemeteries and tombstones………
Oops….
Yes – Le Toussaint, or All Saints Day is celebrated on the first of November in France, and this is the day that we remember all the poor saints for whom there wasn’t a place on the saints’ calendar – in other words, all the saints who do not have a specific day named after them.
The origin of the day probably goes right back to Celtic times when the year was divided in two: summer and winter, and the first of November being the celebration of the first of the year; the Feast of Samain, or Samhuin (the meaning in Irish being weakening, or the end of summer, and in Celtic meaning the beginning of new things and in mythology the time when great cosmic events took place – a time of festivities and games.At the same time, the Feast of Samain was also the feast of the dead – when communication between the living and the dead took place. The tombs were opened on this night and the inhabitants of the Under World could come above ground and the living could share in the word of the gods and the heroes.
In the Anglo Saxon world this feast later developed in the Holy Night or Hallowe’en when the hollowed out pumpkin with the candle inside represented the dead come back to life.
This custom started when, during the 19th century, le Toussaint was proclaimed the Day of the Dead, and the custom was started of children going round with flower pots filled with glowing embers on which incense was burnt (probably to ease the smell of all those opened tombs!) and asked passers-by on çan po lès pauvès-âmes! – a coin for the poor souls! The pots were later replaced with hollowed out pumpkins, cut out to look like a person. In France the Day of the Dead is celebrated on the 2nd of November.
When the Emperor Louis the Pious proclaimed the 1st of November as le Toussaint, he probably did so in council with Pope Gregoire IV in order to wipe out the ancient pagan rituals whilst putting some colour and excitement into the Christian rituals. Instead of communing with the dead, Christians were now encouraged to honour the saints. The plan did not work too well though, as it was the church that relented when they realized that it was not that easy to wipe out rituals that had been practiced for aeons, and allowed a Day for the Dead on the Christian calendar as well – it was the Abbot of Cluny in the 10th century who proclaimed the 2nd of November as the day of all the dead that lie in the heart of Christianity.Thus, on the first le Toussaint is celebrated with feasting and joy, whilst the 2nd of November is the time when flowers (those pots and pots of Chrystanths!) and candles are put on the graves and tombs of the dead.
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