Totensonntag (Dead Sunday), also called Ewigkeitssonntag (Eternity Sunday) or Totenfest, is a Protestant religious holiday Germany and in Switzerland, commemorating the faithful departed.
Totensonntag, Ewigkeitssonntag or Totenfest
It falls on the last Sunday before the first of the Sundays of Advent (i.e. always between November 20 and November 26), and it is the last Sunday of the liturgical year in the German Evangelical Church and the Protestantse Kerk in the Netherlands.
With the development of the liturgical year in the Middle Ages, readings on the last things were linked to the last Sundays of the liturgical year. While the penultimate Sunday focuses on death, the penultimate Sunday has as its theme the Last Judgment and the last eternal life. Traditionally, the last Sunday of the liturgical year deals in a special way with the expectation of the Last Judgment. The gospel is that of the parable of the ten virgins.
In 1816, King Frederick William III of Prussia had his cabinet pass a decree stipulating that all Lutheran churches in areas under Prussian rule were to observe the last Sunday before Advent as a "general celebration in memory of the deceased." Other Lutheran churches in the rest of Germany also followed.
Social networks
Today, Protestants and Lutherans celebrate Totensonntag, All Souls' Sunday. The Sundays of Advent have as their theme death, the last judgment and eternal life. #mythology #myth #legend #calendar #totensonntag #totenfest
Picture
English 
Français