All Souls Day As It Should Be

Celebrating All Souls day is a family celebration for Filipinos. Its reunion time for us, it’s a time were family get together at the tomb of our ancestors and share stories making there memories alive and passed on to the next generation.  I remember lighting candles, and bringing not just flowers but favorite food of our departed love ones so my family can eat together while sharing beautiful memories. This usually happens overnight in the cemetery with games, singing and prayers of course. Masses are also celebrated in the cemetery.

I find no other better way of celebrating All Souls day than this. It has meaning and it adds a certain sense to our lives. Life that as we know it, has an end and yet also a new beginning with a life thereafter. The belief that our love ones never left us, only that they are in a different reality is comforting enough. All souls day is a good celebration connecting us to our past so we can move to the future with confidence.

All Souls Day is a celebration of life, a life well spent and life worth remembering. It is a commemoration of all the faithful departed. We share stories about our deceased loved ones and how they affect our lives. We remember all the good, happy memories. We remember also all the learning’s that we can get. It’s certainly not a celebration of scary looking people dressed up as images of bad spirits, as if magnifying the enemies of Christ. It’s a celebration of hope, because it provides us a glimpse of where we will go. The message of All Souls Day is “our life doesn’t end in cemetery but in heaven”.

If we cannot go to the cemetery, lets light a candle and say a prayer for our deceased family members and friends. Lets celebrate All Souls Day, as it should be, a remembrance day for our love ones who went ahead of us, and a celebration of faith in after life.

by aats