All Souls overshadow All Saints

The Church has a list of all holy men, women and children who have been, and are considered, blessed or saint. The Church believes that all in heaven are saints even if they were not officially declared as such. And those declared blessed and saints cannot be celebrated with feast or with a simple remembrance or memorial because their number surpass the days of the calendar of feasts.

This is the reason why a special day was set aside as a holy day and to be celebrated as Feast of All Saints. This is November 01. In celebrating this feast the Church reminds us of the universal call to holiness. So, everyone should really celebrate.

But less and less attention is given this feast unless it falls on a Sunday like today. But the next day, All Souls’ Day, overshadow the Feast of All Saints. All Souls’ Day is not a feast day. It is just a commemoration. But Filipino culture has it a fiesta, real fiesta in the cemetery with loud music, food aplenty, card playing and mahjong.

The purpose of the Church for setting aside November 2 as All Souls’ Day in order to pray for the souls in purgatory and to reflect on death and final judgment. To do this meaningfully, there must be silence, moments of prayer and meditation on afterlife.

But this part of culture is really a sincere expression of love and offering to the beloved departed. It has been difficult — not, impossible, to reform the commemoration of All Souls on November 2.