All Saints’ Day Observed in Croatia

All Saints’ Day (Photo: Sandra Tralic)

People all over Croatia will head to graveyards to light candles and lay flowers in remembrance of the deceased as All Saints’ Day is observed on Wednesday.

The Feast of All Saints, or All Saints’ Day, is observed annually on 1 November with a national holiday in Croatia.

Locals traditionally use the day to clean family gravestones, add fresh flowers and light candles to pay respects to loved ones no longer here. It is a holy day of obligation for Catholics.

Mirogoj cemetery in the capital Zagreb will again attract massive crowds with spectacular sights just before sunset as the candles begin to take effect.

Mirogoj in Zagreb (Photo: Sandra Tralic)

Mirogoj (Photo: Sandra Tralic)

Mirogoj on All Saints’ Day

Croatian government officials, including President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, paid their respects to all those who died during Croatia’s War of Independence at Mirogoj cemetery on Tuesday.

Officials paid respects on Tuesday (Photo: Valda.hr)

The Croatian president and prime minister at Mirogoj on Tuesday (Photo: Valda.hr)

(Photo: Ured Presjednice)

All Saints’ Day, on its current date, is traced to the foundation by Pope Gregory III (731–741) of an oratory in St. Peter’s for the relics “of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors, of all the just made perfect who are at rest throughout the world”.