Remembering the Dead

While everyone is still sobering up from last weekend's Halloween parties, my family and I have already started visiting our beloved departed in the cemeteries. When I was just a little girl, I found this annual event a mere family culture. It was like Christmas reunions except for the candles and the litany of prayers we recite in latin.

Growing up, the dead whom we visited in the cemeteries have increased. Also, it's not just our relatives whom we would visit. We would now visit some close family friends who have already died ahead of us. We would leave a candle and say a short prayer for them. We would greet or tell them something as if they were listening through the wind.

I don't know why but every time we go to their gravestones I feel like crying. A part of me misses them. It seemed not too long ago when they were still with us. I remember their faces, their voices, their laughs. I remember what they lived for and what they died of.

We remember the dead during this All Saints & All Souls Day. But more importantly, we must remember the beautiful lives they led and the memories they shared when they were still with us.

"Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace. Amen."