Augsburg, Germany -- November is Germany's mournful month: Every year on Nov. 1, Christians observe All Saints' Day, a general commemoration of the dead.

Introduced in 835 AD as a feast for all martyrs and saints by Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious, it has become the main day on which Christians visit the graves of their loved ones.

The faithful departed were originally commemorated on All Souls' Day, on Nov. 2, a holiday established by St Odilo, abbot of Cluny (994-1048) in present-day France.

He decreed that all of the Benedictine monasteries in his large congregation offer Masses and psalms for the dead, and also distribute alms to the poor, on the day after All Saints' Day.

In 1915, Pope Benedict XV made the Feast of All Souls a day of mourning for the entire Roman Catholic Church.

Walter Poetzl, an expert on German traditions from the Swabian region in southern Germany, noted that almsgiving was closely associated with practices to honor the dead.

He said there was evidence from 1762 that inhabitants of the Swabian town of Oberschoenenfeld hung a "Seelenbreze," literally "soul pretzel," on grave crosses.

Baked goods, including rolls and plait-shaped pieces, have played an important role in All Souls' Day, he said.

The custom of giving one's godchild a "Seelenwecken," or "soul roll," on Nov. 1 has survived in a few areas of Swabia and Upper Bavaria.

Made of leavened dough in the shape of an ellipse, the roll is meant to symbolize the soul.

On All Saints' Day in the 15th century, people placed some "soul plaits" or bread loaves on graves, and then passed out others to "poor souls" living in poverty.

The first two days of November are marked by visits to cemeteries, where people decorate the graves of loved ones and place candles, protected by little glass lanterns, around them to burn through the night.

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