November 2 is All Souls Day or Day of the Dead - a feast to honor,
celebrate and remember our ancestors.
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| One of countless colorful ways to celebrate. |
It is a commemoration to recall and honor all who have come before us
and contribute to who we are now. Ghosts and past lives forming the foundation
for a better and brighter future for us all.
For the relocated and nomadic, we carry our ancestral altars with
us.
Born and raised in the Philippines and now living and based in the US,
I have been gifted the perspective of life on both sides of the world.
As a Filipino I lived surrounded by constant reminders of colonization
and the mix ups and mixed emotions that wash over issues in much the same way
countless foreign ships invaded our shores.
As an American I find circumstances flipped to the other side of this
divide, now being the foreigner who has relocated to this far shore.
Part of me resonates with the First Nations as they were forever
changed by the arrival of outsiders on their native homeland.
The other part of me is that migrant who left some far off homeland
filled with hope and aspiration for a brighter future and a new life.
The triduum of Allhallowtide: All
Saints' Eve, All Saints' Day, and All
Souls' Day - in particular tends to bring these myriad and mixed
feelings in its wake.
The veil truly is thinner on this occasion - when mists thicken and fog
our thinking and feeling, when the fabric of our mundane lives loosen and
unravel somewhat, revealing surprising perspectives.
In whatever context - cultural beliefs, familial, traditions, or
personal individualism - our relationship with our ancestors is often viewed as
one of reciprocity, and as such, to be approached with honor, respect, and
celebration.
Conqueror or conquered and oftentimes both, our bloodlines through the
ages remain long after the stories are lost through generations and
distance.
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