All Souls Day - Venice ( Originally Published Early 1900's ) THE
Italians keep their Lemuria or festival for the dead, not in
May, as their Roman ancestors did, but in November. The 2nd of
November, All Souls' Day, and its octave are more generally
observed than any other of the minor holy days in the Roman
calendar. No festival could so unite all classes of people as
this, on which each family pays the tribute of memory to its
lost ones, and acknowledges the power of that great Democrat,
Death. Every day throughout the octave, the churches of Venice
recite a mass for the souls of those who are gone and implore
for them the intercession of All Saints, whose festival comes
immediately before the day of the dead. In the evening another
service is held, a little after sundown. There is a sermon ; and
then begins the lighting of candles all through the church,
before each altar and round the catafalque in the centre. It is
upon the vigil of All Souls, the " notte dei Morti " as it is
called, and at the church of