The day of the dead, an eternity for the risen

In Jesus’ time, the Sadducees, the priestly class that performed sacrifices in the Temple, denied the resurrection of the dead. For them, life ended definitely in death. Today, atheists not only deny God’s existence, but also human immortality. For them, belief in heaven, in the resurrection is but a delusion to allay our fear of mortality and of the absence of any eternal significance to our lives.

The heart of Christianity is faith in a God of Life, a Triune God that loves us into being and against the forces of annihilation will love us unto eternal life. From non-existence, we have been created out of love. Amidst sin and chaos in the world, God labors to give us fullness of life. Against the forces of evil and death, God will restore us to life. To believe in God is to believe in a God who will share eternity with us.

As we had flocked to the cemeteries to visit and honor our dearly departed, let us reflect on the various manners Christians honor their dead, but more importantly, express faith in our God of Life. I asked Fr. Carlos Manging, a visiting Ecuadoran Jesuit, to share some of the religious practices surrounding the feast of all the dead in Latin America.

Fr. Carlos writes: “We Latin-American people celebrate the Day of the Dead in myriad ways: in many places, the celebration includes building altars and honoring the deceased with flowers, photographs, their favorite food and beverages, gifts that are brought to the graves and shared among those who are present.” More specifically, Fr. Carlos explains:

• “In Mexico people prepare many rituals such as skulls masks, handicrafts, candies and special dinners. By night they ornate the graves with lights and xempazuchitl flowers.

• In Guatemala, in addition to the traditional visits to grave sites of ancestors, Catholics celebrate the Day of the Dead by flying giant kites and preparing fiambre, which is cooked only during this day of the year.

• Nearby, in Nicaragua, people sleep together with their relatives as they spend the whole night remembering and praying for their beloved dead.

• In Ecuador, the indigenous gather in the cemetery with offerings of food for the day-long remembrance of their ancestors. At the end of the day they play Piruruy, a special game with “dados”. Ceremonial foods include colada morada, a spiced fruit porridge that derives its deep purple color from the Andean blackberry and purple maize. This is typically consumed with guagua de pan, a bread shaped like a swaddled infant, which can be made savory with cheese inside or sweet with a filling of guava paste.

• In Haiti, syncretistic Catholics intermingle Roman Catholic observances with voodoo traditions, such as the loud playing of drums and bellowing of chants in cemeteries all night long in order to awaken Baron Samedi, the Loa of the dead, and his mischievous offspring, the Gede.

• In Bolivia, Catholics celebrate Dia de los ñatitas (Day of the Skulls) on November 9. Traditionally, the skull of one or more family members is kept at home to watch over the family and protect them during the year. On November 9, the family crowns the skull with fresh flowers, offering it cigarettes, coca leaves, alcohol, and other items in thanksgiving for the year’s protection. The skulls are also sometimes taken to the central cemetery in La Paz for a special Mass and blessing.”

I thought only Filipino Catholics celebrated All Saints Day and All Souls’ Day with great religious zeal and intricate cultural practices. It turns out that we are very much like our Latin American Catholic brothers and sisters, honoring our dead with great fastidiousness and fanfare.

All these prayers for our deceased spoken in various tongues echo the firm hope of the Maccabean martyrs honored in our First Reading: “the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever (2 Macc 7:9).”

Are these pleadings for our deceased a panacea for our fear of mortality, our dread of everlasting insignificance? Are they mere projections of our hope for immortality, for eternal meaning to all the good we try to do and strive to be? Our prayers for and to our deceased would, indeed, be useless chaff, if not for the resurrection of Christ: “Jesus Christ is the first born of the dead; to him be glory and power, forever and ever” (Rev. 1:5a, 6b). Because he is risen, we know the Sadducees have been disproven. Because he is risen, the longings for everlasting life uttered by the Maccabean martyrs, echoed by all those who have stared death in the eye, are not in vain. Jesus is risen. Eternity is our destiny.

(Fr. Manoling Francisco, SJ is a prolific composer of liturgical music and serves on the faculty of the Loyola School of Theology. For feedback on this column, e-mail [email protected].)