Honoring the dead as a part of life
10:28 a.m. Friday, November 2, 2007
All Saints Day is celebrated November 1st. Kim Morse, Assistant Professor of History at Washburn University says it's an old event in the Catholic calendar, nearly from the beginning, and is usually celebrated with special Masses.
"All Saints Day is the Feast Day in the Catholic calendar that honors all saints known and unknown," Morse said. "Those saints that have actually made it into heaven."
All Souls Day, November 2nd, is a time to honor those that haven't yet made it into heaven.
The idea is from the old European tradition that after most people die, instead of going directly to heaven, the souls actually went to Purgatory.
Want to know more?
The Internet is full of sites that explain these religious holidays, but a good place to start is en.wikipedia.org. Also, an excellent site for Day of the Dead information is www.dayofthedead.com.
"So then the souls had a process to make it to heaven," Morse said. "And that usually involved extra masses, offerings, all kinds of different things like that, that would help the souls get to heaven. It's very much re-connecting with your personal dead, with your family's dead. You've got very specific people in mind that you're praying for, that you're having masses for."
All Souls Day is also Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos in Latin American countries. The day is a blending of Catholic and indigenous traditions.
It's celebrated with Masses, burning candles and incense, creating an altar for the departed loved one and spending the night at the grave.
"What's important, particularly in Latin America, or in Latin American communities here, is the continuity between the living and the dead, the connection between you and your ancestors. And honoring those ancestors as part of the ongoing family, and there really isn't a break between life and death."
Professor Morse says All Saints Day is a day to remind us of how we should live, what the saints represent.
And All Souls Day or Day of the Dead is about reconnecting with family, living and dead.
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