Honoring our ancestors

This weekend we celebrate the trio of feasts that mark the transition between life and death: All Hallows Eve today, All Saints tomorrow, All Souls on Sunday. The old Celtic feast of Samhain, the New Year on the Celtic calendar, lingers in some of our celebrations, with bonfires, feasting, and remembering the ancestors; the Mexican Day of the Dead picks up on these same themes. We honor our ancestors, we lay the old year to rest, we feast and celebrate (even if only on candy corn and pizza!). And we are newly attentive to the thinness of the veil between this world and the other. This is not just a pagan celebration! A quote attributed to the 4th century St John Chrysostom says, "Those whom we love and lose are no longer where they were before; they are now wherever we are." We carry our loved ones with us in our hearts, even as we believe that they are at rest with God. Occasions like All Saints give us a chance to remember them afresh: to be grateful for the gifts they gave us, and the legacy and heritage we have from them; and to forgive and release them for the harms and challenges they brought to our lives. 

So as you make your way through the overly-scary Halloween decorations and too much discounted fun-size candy, pause also to remember: to recall and give thanks, and to release and let go. God is in this season, as God is in all times and everywhere.