All Saints day take three

Well, we have been to the cemetary and back already...
It is like a fiesta. Everyone brings flowers and candles, and then sits and prays and eats...
If you forget anything, there are plenty of vendors selling stuff...coca cola, green coconut drink, various crackers, rolls, pastries, etc. I didn't see any barbecue, but I suspect that is there too...

The police made the roads one way, and were cheerfully directing traffic...
You see, this is not a day of mourning, but a day to remember the dead...who are still with us.

This is a Catholic idea, that the dead are part of the "communion of saints" and watch us and protect us from heaven, and when we pray for their souls, they also pray for us. They are not really dead, but still involved with us and our families.

But also this is an Asian idea (Chinese also go to cemetaries and have family picnics)...

The Protestants don't celebrate it...probably because they see it as a "pagan" idea, which it is...Protestants alas are not only puritans but influenced by scientific, utilitarian Americans : What's the use of spending such money? They are dead...period...move on, folks, nothing happening here...

Ah, but culturally it reminds people that we are not alone, not individuals, but part of a large story, and those before us and those after us are also part of that story...and it is good, for one day a year, to remember those whose story is now finished but who care for those of us still here on earth...

The idea is universal, but not to be discarded because it is "pagan"...after all, all men are made in God's image, and have his ideas in our hearts and minds, so that a poet, a musician--or a simple peasant who lays flowers on the grave of an ancestor-- is merely echoing the idea that God placed there...

(The above photo was taken last August...)