Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them… (George Eliot)
When I was a child I enjoyed visiting the St. Matthews cemetery. St. Matthews had family pot luck dinners that I really appreciated as a child – there were so many good cooks in the community! And after we ate, we kids would often go outside and play in the cemetery, where our ancestors were buried. The living and the dead.
I’m sure you’ve heard of Day of the Dead and maybe wondered what it is and if it relates to Halloween… Apparently its origin is not well known, but it’s believed to be a combination of native cultures with All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day of the Catholics. The pre-Hispanic cultures believed mourning the dead was disrespectful – death was a natural phase of life’s continuum. The dead were still part of the community and kept alive in memory and spirit. And, during Day of the Dead, they temporarily return to earth.
Day of the Dead is traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2. As part of the Day of the Dead celebrations, family members may visit and decorate graves, dress up in costumes, participate in parades, prepare home or community altars. The celebrations are festive and cheerful. The flowers you see most in the decorations and artwork are marigolds, which symbolize the brevity of life. Ubiquitous is the calavaras (skull) image, often shown with a smile.
Honoring our ancestors is healthy and consistent with how many people think of their genealogy work. The task is to find out more about our ancestors, celebrate their lives, and hopefully learn a little bit about life and history along the way. In a way we even have “shrines” to our families — don’t most of us display photographs of friends and family members?
You do not have to believe that your ancestors come back for a day or two to spend a little time appreciating their lives. Thanksgiving is an excellent time to remember your ancestors, a time to tell family stories, and to create memories for those sharing the holiday with you.
“We are a continuum. Just as we reach back to our ancestors for our fundamental values, so we, as guardians of that legacy, must reach ahead to our children and their children. And we do so with a sense of sacredness in that reaching. ” (Paul Tsongas)
More about Day of the Dead: