all souls day

yesterday was all souls day and i was at the western road cemetery. ahhh! it was such a hot day. the sun sweltering and burning the skin. we had to be there at 3.00pm for the service for the dead because our parish (church within an area) was put in charge of carrying out the service. i was there early at 2.00pm as i need to go to pay respect to my father first. my father was buried in the same plot as his father. and next to his grave was the grave of his mother. his sister who passed away before him was also buried there but a few metres away.

all souls day is a celebration of the catholics. it is a day commemorating the faithful departed or those baptized Christians believed to be in purgatory. the buddhist equivalent to ‘all souls day’ is known as ‘cheng beng’ or ‘quan ming’, which is usually celebrated around march/april.

all souls day is also known as http://www.nacnet.org/assunta/dead.htmday of the dead. self explanatory of course. a day to remember and honored the dead.

in penang, the most famous christian cemetery is in western road. as you enter the cemetery, to your right is the graves of the protestant while to your left is of the catholics. the protestants do not celebrate all souls day, therefore on all souls day, you’ll only get to see the left side of the cemetery full of people with candles and flowers paying respect to their departed loved ones. this cemetery also see many war personnel buried there.

unlike the buddhists who offered up food and burn paper for the dead, we catholics offered up flowers and burn cancles. every year on all souls day, the road leading to the western road cemetery will usually be very crowded and jammed because of many people making their way there. and in front of the cemetery it usually take an air of festivity, where we see many flowers stall being set up, and some enterprising people would set up drinks stall. being such a hot sweltering day, these drinks stalls of course makes good business. but i’m smart…. i brought along my own bottle of mineral water! of course when we are there, we try to stay longer, to be with our dearly departed ones. after lighting candles and placing flowers, we would pray all together. then we would just sit or stand there chit chatting for a while.

i always look forward to all souls day as it is a time for us to remember our loved ones who passed away. not that of course we don’t remember them everyday but only remember them on this day but all souls day is a special day dedicated for the dead ones, and also a day where all the catholics come together to cemeteries to pay their respect…. like a day of ‘community prayer for the dead ones’.