All Souls Day

Today is November 2nd and the traditional celebration of All Souls Day, which follows on the heels of the better known All Saints Day. All Souls celebrates all who have died and across the world is celebrated in a number of ways, including cleaning or decorating of gravesites, cooking and baking the favorite foods of those who have passed on to glory, sharing memories and song.

Living in Southern California, we’ve been blessed to be near an ancient tradition that Catholic missionaries later fused with All Souls, the Mexican celebration of Día de Muertos, a three-day event that in our area includes parades, public and private ofrendas (altars) to the deceased that are elaborately decorated, dancing and gathering in remembrance. Central among the flowers used to decorate graves and ofrendas are bountiful amounts of marigolds (cempasúchil) brightly scented and radiating vibrant orange.

Many commentaries about this holiday mention the fact that as American Christians, we’ve lost our means of grieving, especially in any communal sense. We’ve lost traditions and rituals that connect us to mortality, to loss and grief and honoring those who are in mourning. Catholic and Orthodox traditions are much more attuned to these rituals than much of Protestant Christianity at this time.

Grief is messy and painful and it’s also an experience that is holy and demands our attention, and if we do not honor that space, it comes out in more difficult and damaging ways.

For this reason, we are grateful to every culture and every tradition around the world that offers perspective on how to grieve, how to honor the dead, their memory, their presence and the spirit of those we love and see no longer. May God grant you peace and bring you joy in the remembrance of those we’ve lost in this life, in the full knowledge we shall know one another in the next and celebrate together the restoration of all things in Christ Jesus.

A Prayer for All Souls Day

Death is a border between this life

and the life to come

but we have Christ as our bridge

and we do not cross alone.

Creator God, bless those who have

passed on to your glory.

May their memories

be a blessing to us in our mourning.

Leave us your peace and your spirit

and help us to remember that

grief and remembrance are sacred,

and we never grieve alone.

Amen.