11/1/09

All Hallows Begins Again the Liturgical Year

AllSaintsToday is the beginning of the Twelve Days of Piety, a holiday AUR shares with other Christians: All Hallows Day, the commemoration of all Saints, known and unknown.

On this day, we honor those who have died after long and pious lives, or who have sacrificed their lives for a good and just cause.  For AUR, this means not only a list of officially accepted Saints, but anyone who has expressed a remark-worthy excess of virtue in the way they lived or died.

Tomorrow, All Souls Day, is the Memorial Day of AUR, when we honor all of the departed and meditate on the meaning of death.  The Twelve Days of Piety end on All Corners Day — which falls on a Thursday this year! — when American Reform Unitarians specifically honor the virtuous in other nations and other faith communities.