Totensonntag (Sunday of the Dead), also called Ewigkeitssonntag (Sunday of Eternity) or Totenfest, is a Protestant religious holiday in Germany and in Switzerland, commemorating the faithful departed.
It falls on the last Sunday before the first Sunday of Advent (i.e. always between the 20 November and November 26), and this 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, the 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 is themed around the Last Judgment and the Last Eternal Life. Traditionally, the last Sunday of the liturgical year deals particularly 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 adopt 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.
Here is the text of our social networks:
Today, Protestants and Lutherans celebrate Totensonntag, the Sunday of the Dead. The Sundays of Advent have as their theme death, the last judgment and eternal life. #mythology #myth #legend #calendar #totensonntag #totenfest
EN 
FR 
ES