Well today was Day of the Dead and
it is a very important day down here in all of Central America. Now if you have
ever heard of Day of the Dead you most likely know the Mexican version of it
(It is really the only version that gets any publicity…), as far as I know it
is not celebrated like that in any other Latin American country. The Mexican
celebration of Day of the Dead involves entire families going to visit their
loved ones grave sites, and with them they bring decorations, lots of food, and
candles to spend the night with them. It is a very big deal as far as I know;
here it is not such a big deal. However, the people here do celebrate this day
by going to the cemetery and bringing flowers to decorate the gravesites and
cleaning up the grave/cemetery. I did not get a chance to head out to the cemetery
today (maybe next year) but I was told that it looked really nice and clean and
lots of flowers. Besides that tradition there was also a mass to celebrate this
day, actually this week is a bit of a marathon of masses. Yesterday was All
Saints day, today was All Soul’s Day, and tomorrow is Christ the King. The
church was decorated really nicely with lots of purple all over and there were
a lot of people that came. At the beginning of the mass someone read a list of
all the names of those who have died, the list was really long and probably
took around 10 minutes to read all of the names.
The priest, my guy Fr. Henry, gave
an interesting sermon in which he brought up the fact that we should all want
to die because it means that we will be in heaven with Jesus and God. This
point really struck me as interesting and at the same time confusing, I get
that we want to be in heaven with Jesus and God. Of course, there is no arguing
that previous point. But where I get a little confused is this: I know that God
has a plan for me here on earth and I know He is working through me to better
this world. So why then do I want to die and stop doing these good works? I
guess the simple answer that I have arrived at is that it all has to do with
God’s plan once again. All I need to do is trust in that plan and when it is my
time, it is my time. It seems like a pretty nonchalant approach to life but
really I think it just means that you have put all of your trust in God because
He has the ultimate plan.
With that being said, why then are
people afraid to die? I think a lot of it of course has to do with the fact
that they do not want to leave their friends and family. I think another large
part of it has to do with the fact that they feel as though they have more work/more
things to do in this world and they have not yet done all that they want to do
(what better excuse then to not put off that thing that you have been wanting
to do for the longest time? Go do it!). However, I suspect that a little bit of
it also has to do with the fact that there is some unknown in death. We do not
know for complete certainty what comes after we die for the simple fact that no
one who has even died has lived to tell about it. I think that unknown scares
us, especially us Americans, we always want to know what to expect, what is
going to happen next. The solution to this conundrum for me is simple, and it
once again has to do with faith. I am proud to say that I have absolute faith
that when I breathe my last and God calls me up to heaven, I know exactly what
is going to happen but until that day I am going to do my absolute best to
enjoy every single second that I have. I think you should do the same; after
all, the clock is ticking on us all…
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