I am sure everyone of us will have someone we love to remember on All Soul’s Day. Our families and friends go to visit our departed loved ones in their resting places. This year many of us are anticipating a really long weekend with November 1 and 2 falling being Thursday and Friday. We have time to go out of town, return to our home provinces and join our families in visiting our loved ones. The cemeteries that are usually quiet becomes turns into a noisy and congested place. It becomes more a celebration of the living rather than the silent commemoration of the dead.
I do not really know how nor why the days for the remembrance of our dead have been associated with horror, ghosts, vampires and the netherworld, things that are not even remotely connected with the remembrance of our loved ones who have passed away. Maybe this occasion have been associated with other cultural practices somewhere along its long history. Maybe it is because it is associated with death. Halloween is the popular name for this. So, November 1 and 2 have two faces – one that is the celebration of our love and devotion to our dead loved ones and a Halloween celebration that deals more with fears, ghosts and spirits.
I would rather spend these days to remember my loved ones who have gone ahead of me. I would rather remember them with the people whose lives they have touched too. I will pause to pray for them, I will try to remember the times when they were still here by my side.
Remembering our dead will remind us of our own mortality. Celebrating their lives even after they have died will remind us that there is still life to be lived ahead of us. For me, All Souls Day is a celebration of life – the life that our loved ones lived and the lives of those they have touched. The commemoration of the dead is a celebration of LIFE.
Labels: death, mortality |
