All Saints Day is probably best experienced in New Orleans with its historic, beautiful cemeteries, melancholic change of season into autumn, parades, music, and French-Spanish reverence for the dead. The saints seem to hover in the air everywhere there, conjured and praised by the Catholic Church and even by the voodooists. Indeed, when the Saints (the N.F.L. team, that is) were proposed to the city in the '60s, the team owners had the class and respectfulness first to ask the city's then-Archbishop Hannan if the Church would be offended if the team were named "the Saints." The Archbishop gave his blessing but on the condition that no religious symbols would be used; hence the fleur-de-lis and not a halo, cross, angels, etc. for the club. But I guess the heavenly saints never heard of football, as the New Orleans team has won only one or two championships in some forty years.
-Old Doc
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