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All Saints Day

As we are seeing a lot of Halloween images around our streets just reminder of the origins of this custom.

All Saints’ Day, in the Christian church, is a day commemorating all the saints of the church, both known and unknown, who have attained heaven. It is celebrated on November 1 in the Western churches and on the first Sunday after Pentecost in the Eastern churches. In Roman Catholicism, the feast is usually a holy day of obligation. It is part of the three-day triduum dedicated to remembering the dead, beginning with Halloween (October 31) and followed by All Saints’ Day (November 1) and All Souls’ Day (November 2).

Halloween of course is noted for its pagan and religious roots and secular traditions. In much of Europe and most of North America, observance of Halloween is largely nonreligious, celebrated with parties, spooky costumes, jack-o’-lanterns, pumpkin carvings and the giving of candy.

So thinking about symbols we associate with death we thought we would focus on our early burials. Our Churches in the shire do not have graveyards. However, we do have two cemeteries. Prior to these opening locals would have been buried either at Guildford Cemetery (late 1800s) or Karrakatta (1899 )

Wooroloo Cemetery was gazetted in 1906 and in 1915 when the Sanitorium was opened nearby it was then known as Wooroloo