November 1, All Saints Day

I wanted to learn about this holiday which I am grateful for because my boys have tomorrow off! Here is the scoop: All Saints day is a festival honoring all the saints, known and unknown. Pope Gregory III changed the date of the festival to November the first.
May 13, 609 was the First All Saints Day and was the very first day that a pagan church was transformed into a Christian place of worship in Rome, and was of all places the Pantheon! (You must see the Pantheon when in Rome)! Pope Boniface IV received permission from the Emperor to change the Pantheon from a temple which had been dedicated to Jupiter, Mars and Venus to a Christian church, which he consecrated to the Virgin Mary and all the Martyrs. What is incredible is that it is said they took sacred bones from the catacombs and placed them under the altar... 28 cartloads of bones! Many early Christians prayed and worshiped God among the graves and bodies of their dead, for they were in hiding from, and persecuted by the Roman Empire, and lived hidden among the catacombs. (The catacombs are another must see when you are in Rome. It is mandatory to see the catacombs as part of a tour group, but it was very informative and interesting. It was probably my favorite tour of Rome. It was very sobering when I looked around and saw the small passageways and grave niches... and thought of the lives of the Christians who had actually lived there).