All Saints’ & All Souls’ Days

According to the book “Catechism for Filipino Catholics,” Filipinos have traditionally manifested their deep faith in an afterlife with prayers for our departed loved ones and our devotion to the saints.

This is together with Philippine culture that places tremendous emphasis on the family. That is why in a few days, we will celebrate All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. The mandatory visits to the burial sites of our deceased family members is both a religious tradition and a cultural festival.

However, in the Philippines, a lot of visits to burial sites are actually days before Nov. 1, due to people striving to escape the heavy traffic during that day.

Christians, Muslims and Jews share a common practice of burying their dead in a special area called a cemetery. But not all faiths bury their dead. Hindus generally practice cremation, rather than burial. Even among Christian families today, the practice of cremation has become more widespread. But in the Hindu tradition, cremation is considered an act of purification.

Christian burial practices can be traced to the early days of Christianity. In ancient Rome, underground passages known as catacombs were used to bury the early Christians in order to protect the bodies of the faithful since that religion was still considered illegal.

When Christianity was legalized, Christians buried their dead in the yard around the church. As these burial places became overcrowded, separate burial grounds were established outside the city or town walls. Today, most cemeteries are owned by local governments or even commercial ventures and have become known as “memorial parks.”

It is the Christian belief in the existence of the soul and its immortality that our ancestors continue to live after death. If one accepts the existence of souls, it must follow that there is a place where they can go after death. This belief leads to a whole constellation of other associated beliefs, principally in a heaven and hell, and a final resurrection. For Catholics, there is also the belief in an existence of a purgatory. The modern concept of an immortal soul was also found in ancient Greece. Both Socrates and Plato shared in the idea of the divine origin of the soul. It was in this idea that the belief took root that the soul is in fact more precious than the body.

This was not, however, a view held by the majority. In fact, most Greeks at that time did not believe there was life after death. Among the Greeks who believed in some form of afterlife, the dead went straight to the underworld which, in the Iliad, was guarded by the canine Cerberus. The soul could reach this place only by crossing the river Styx. The underworld was called “Hades,” which derives from the root word meaning invisible or unseen. There was also a paradise, derived from paridaeza, which variously meant a vineyard or a grove of date palms. The word was also associated with royal hunting forests, or the lush shaded gardens reserved for the aristocracy.

Deceased ancestors are very important in the society of traditional China. For the gift of life, a boy is forever indebted to his parents, owing them obedience, deference and a comfortable old age. Even after their death, he has to provide for them in the spirit world, offering food, money and incense on the anniversaries of their birth and death.

On All Saints’ Day, we are supposed to honor all those persons who are in heaven but have never been canonized. Thus, we honor all saints, especially those with no specific feast day, on Nov. 1.

It is a feast rich in tradition and antiquity. In the year 609 AD, the Roman emperor Phocas ceded the Pantheon, which had been a pagan temple in honor of all the gods. This edifice was re-dedicated as a church in honor of Mary and all the martyrs on May 13 of that year.

In due time, the date was moved to Nov. 1 because that was the day when pilgrims were in Rome, and being right after the harvest, food was plentiful. The idea of celebrating Nov. 1 as a feast day with plenty of food is therefore an early tradition we can trace to the early days of Christianity.

Another reason for the choice of the date was that it was intended to counteract the Druid feast of evil spirits which, by the way, is really the origin of Halloween.

During these two days of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days, we should remember all our ancestors and continue to pray for all Filipino families, that they remain strong and united in the face of the hardships and challenges confronting the Filipino people today. We should also continue to pray that the saints continue to be with us and remain as our inspiration and models in our daily life.

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