November 2 Holidays, Observances and History

The November 2 holidays mix quiet remembrance with history and light-hearted observances: from All Souls’ Day and Día de los Muertos to National Deviled Egg Day, National Ohio Day and Job Action Day, plus a full slate of this-day-in-history moments and famous birthdays.

November 2 is a quieter, more reflective day after Halloween weekend: it is All Souls’ Day, the second and central day of Día de los Muertos, and a day for remembering the dead in many traditions. In 2026 it falls on a Monday — the first Monday in November, which also brings Job Action Day onto the same date. It is the 306th day of 2026, with 59 days left in the year.

November 2 holidays and observances

• All Souls’ Day — a Christian observance, in the Roman Catholic tradition especially, dedicated to prayer for the faithful departed. It follows All Saints’ Day (November 1) and is marked with Masses, grave visits, candles and flowers.
• Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), day 2 — the Mexican celebration running November 1–2; November 2 traditionally honours deceased adults and is the main day for cemetery visits and sharing food with loved ones.
• National Deviled Egg Day (US) — celebrating the classic party appetiser of hard-boiled eggs filled with a seasoned yolk mixture.
• National Ohio Day (US) — recognising Ohio, the 17th state to join the United States, known as the Buckeye State.
• Job Action Day (US, 2026) — held on the first Monday in November, a day focused on taking a concrete step in a career or job search.
• International Doge Day — listed by National Day Calendar as a day to “Do Only Good Everyday.”
• Look for Circles Day — a light-hearted day for spotting circles in everyday life.
• Plan Your Epitaph Day — a wry, reflective prompt to think about how you want to be remembered.
• Broadcast Traffic Professionals Day (US) — recognising the people who schedule and coordinate broadcast programming and advertising.
• Statehood Day (North Dakota and South Dakota, US) — marking both states’ admission to the Union on November 2, 1889.

Featured holiday: All Souls’ Day

All Souls’ Day — formally, the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed — is the day the Church turns from honouring the saints in heaven (November 1) to praying for all who have died. Prayer for the dead predates the annual observance, but a major milestone is traditionally dated to 998, when St Odilo, abbot of Cluny in what is now France, established a commemoration of the departed on November 2 for the monasteries under Cluny’s influence, and the date spread from there.

It is a solemn commemoration rather than a festive celebration, and in the United States it is not a holy day of obligation. Common observances include Masses for the departed, visiting graves, lighting candles, leaving flowers, and giving to charity in a loved one’s memory. In the Philippines, where November 1–2 is known as Undas, families likewise gather at cemeteries; in 2026, All Souls’ Day on November 2 was declared an extra special non-working day in the Philippines to give families more time for those visits.

How to mark it:

1. Light a candle or leave flowers for someone you miss.
2. Visit a grave or a place that mattered to them, if you can.
3. Share one story about them with family — a small, specific memory keeps better than a formal tribute.
4. Give to a cause they cared about, in their name.

This day in history

• 1889 — North Dakota and South Dakota join the Union, admitted on the same day as the 39th and 40th states, after the Dakota Territory was divided.
• 1930 — Haile Selassie is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa.
• 1947 — Howard Hughes pilots the “Spruce Goose” — the Hughes H-4 Hercules, the largest wooden flying boat ever built — on its first and only flight, over Long Beach Harbor, California.
• 1948 — Harry S. Truman narrowly wins re-election over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey, the election behind the famous “Dewey Defeats Truman” newspaper headline.
• 1976 — Jimmy Carter defeats President Gerald Ford in the US presidential election.
• 1983 — President Ronald Reagan signs the bill establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a US federal holiday.
• 2000 — The first resident crew arrives at the International Space Station, beginning continuous human occupation of the station.

Famous birthdays on November 2

• Daniel Boone (1734) — American pioneer and frontiersman.
• Marie Antoinette (1755) — Queen of France, wife of Louis XVI.
• James K. Polk (1795) — 11th President of the United States.
• Warren G. Harding (1865) — 29th President of the United States.
• k.d. lang (1961) — Canadian singer-songwriter.
• David Schwimmer (1966) — American actor, best known as Ross in Friends.
• Nelly (1974) — American rapper.

Related days

• Yesterday: November 1 — All Saints’ Day, World Vegan Day, Día de los Muertos begins
• Tomorrow: November 3 — National Sandwich Day, World Jellyfish Day
• Browse the month: November hub

Why November 2 matters

November 2 stands out on the calendar because it joins remembrance with history. The day’s observances invite people to look backward with gratitude — at ancestors, loved ones, and even the epitaphs they might write for themselves — while the history items show how much of the modern world was shaped on this one date: two states admitted to the Union, a coronation in Ethiopia, a flying boat’s only flight, elections that remade American politics, a federal holiday signed into being, and the start of continuous human life in orbit.

The birthdays, too, stretch from the frontier to the present day — Daniel Boone and Marie Antoinette, presidents Polk and Harding, k.d. lang, David Schwimmer, and Nelly — which is why the November 2 holidays repay a closer look each year. Every November 2 holiday on this page has its own article above, so pick one that speaks to you and start there.