All Saints' Day - The Meaning and History Behind the November 1st Holiday
All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows' Day, is a Christian holiday that is observed on November 1st in Western Christianity. All Saints' Day is a Christian memorial day celebrating the honor of all church saints, whether known or unknown. It is a day set aside to honor all the saints who have lived righteous and holy lives in accordance with Christian teachings. All Saints' Day is part of a broader tradition that includes All Hallows' Eve (Halloween) on October 31st and All Souls' Day on November 2nd.
This holiday is a yearly reminder of our connectedness as Christians to the church. Perhaps you were taught to think of saints as statues in a church building. But the Bible teaches something completely different. Who is a saint? You are. That is if you’re a follower of Jesus. God calls a "saint" those who trust in Christ alone for salvation.
Origin of All Saints Day
The origin of All Saints' Day can be traced back to the early Christian Church when it was established as a day to remember and celebrate the martyrs and other saints who had died for their faith. Over time, the scope of the holiday expanded to include martyrs and all faithful Christians who had lived pious and virtuous lives. It is a day to recognize the saints' collective witness and express gratitude for their example. In the early Christian Church, there was a strong emphasis on the veneration of martyrs who had suffered and died for their faith. These martyrs were seen as exemplary models of Christian virtue, and their graves or burial places became sites of pilgrimage and veneration. The anniversary of a martyr's death often became a day for commemorating their lives and the sacrifices they made for their faith.
More at link: https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/all-saints-day-november-1.html
How to Compost Your Halloween Pumpkins 
Almost one billion pumpkins are grown annually to help us celebrate the spooky season, but most of those pumpkins are thrown in the garbage rather than being composted. As fruits and vegetables ripen and rot, they release methane gas. Methane gas, like CO2, traps heat in the atmosphere, which we want to avoid.
When organic matter is added to landfills, these gases become trapped and cannot properly break down, leading to long-term adverse environmental effects like global warming and polluted air. Contrary to popular belief, landfills simply don’t provide an atmosphere that allows organic matter to become compost. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), about 58% of methane emissions from municipal solid waste in landfills consist of compostable food waste.
Halloween and fall decor includes lots of organic items like pumpkins, corn stalks, and mums, but luckily, we can turn them all into future soil and garden fertility. Follow these simple steps to compost your Halloween pumpkins and keep them out of landfills.
If you’re really into Halloween decorations, you likely went all out and used spooky candles, wax, stickers, and paint on your pumpkins. Before composting or donating, remove anything you added to the inside or outside of the pumpkin as decoration. This could be candles, battery-powered lights, paint, or glitter that may not be safe to compost or consume.
If you had previously gutted and cleaned the pumpkin, grab any straggling seeds left behind from the cleaning process to prevent pumpkins from sprouting in your compost pile. Or leave them for a fun experiment. The seeds may produce a funky pumpkin that you can decorate next year, closing the loop on your Halloween pumpkin supply!
If you decorated whole pumpkins, you should clean them at this point before proceeding to the next step. Cut open the top large enough to access the inside with your hand and a large spoon. Scrape along the sides to remove the pulp and stringy bits, then spoon out the innards. If the pumpkin hasn’t shown any signs of decomposition, place the “guts” into a strainer. Clean it up by removing any pulp, and save it for making a pie or pumpkin soup. If you don’t love pumpkin seeds, let them dry out and share them with birds later.
More at link: https://www.epicgardening.com/compost-pumpkins/
Diana here: Our chickens LOVE pumpkin! The 10 of them can devour an entire one in a few days, carved or not. ;)