LAKSHMI BUDKE
Panaji (Goa) With November at our doorsteps, we are almost at the end of the year 2017. How did the whole year just go by! I am sure most of us might be thinking the same but it also the best time of the year, not only because it winter or because of Diwali or Christmas but also because it one of the holiest period of the year. We have all saints day as well as all souls day that is observed in the month of November. All saints day is celebrated on 1st of November whereas 2nd November is the all souls day.
All saints day is where prayers are offered for the souls that have departed to heaven, but all souls day on the other hand is the day when prayers are offered for the souls that are in purgatory so that they are cleansed of their sins and can go to heaven.
In Christianity it is believed that when a catholic dies, the soul of that person goes to either ne of the three places. The first being heaven, where only the soul of the one who dies without committing any sin and is in perfect communion with god goes; second is hell where the souls of all those who have committed mortal sins go. Now we all knew about these two places, where heaven is being the best and hell being the worst! But, there is a place that is the intermediate option between these two places, which is called purgatory, where it is believed that souls of people who haven’t committed any mortal sins but have committed sins of lesser degree must go. It is believed that the prayers that are offered by the living for the deceased souls are the medium through which the sins of the souls which are in the purgatory can be cleansed and they can enter the gates of heaven.
There is scriptural basis for this belief. The primary reference can be found in 2 Maccabees, 12:26 and 12:32. “Turning to supplication, they prayed that the sinful deed might be fully blotted out… Thus made atonement for the dead that they might be free from sin.”Additional references are found in Zechariah, Sirach, and the Gospel of Matthew.
The importance of All Souls Day was made clear by Pope Benedict XV (1914-22), when he granted all priests the privilege of celebrating three Masses on All Souls Day: one for the faithful departed; one for the priest’s intentions; and one for the intentions of the Holy Father. On only a handful of other very important feast days are priests allowed to celebrate more than two Masses.
All souls day has a rich history; it wasn’t always celebrated on November 2nd. While All Souls Day is now paired with All Saints Day, which celebrates all of the faithful who are in Heaven, it originally was celebrated in the Easter season, around Pentecost Sunday (and still is in the Eastern Catholic Churches).
By the tenth century, the celebration had been moved to October; and sometime between 998 and 1030, St. Odilo of Cluny decreed that it should be celebrated on November 2 in all of the monasteries of his Benedictine congregation. Over the next two centuries, other Benedictines and the Carthusians began to celebrate it in their monasteries as well, and soon the commemoration of all the Holy Souls in Purgatory spread to the entire Church. Hence much of the western world began celebrating it on November 2 but other rites have their own celebrations. The Eastern Orthodox Church dedicates several days throughout the year to the dead, mostly on Saturdays, because of Jesus’ resting in the tomb on Saturday.
There is no rigid way of celebrating this day; every culture has their own way of going ahead with their celebrations. In North America, Americans may say extra prayers or light candles for the departed. In parts of Latin America, families visit the graves of their ancestors and sometimes leave food offerings for the departed.
Among continental Protestants its tradition has been more tenaciously maintained. The French people, of all ranks and creeds, to decorate the graves of their dead on the jour des morts, likewise the German and the Polish people stream to the graveyards once a year with offerings of flowers and special grave lights, and amongst the Czech people the custom of visiting and tidying graves of relatives on the day is quite common even among atheists.
In the end we can say that even though the ways are different but the agenda is common that is to pray for the souls and help them in their journey to heaven. All saints day also teaches us to live lives on the holy path and that there will be purification of the souls of those destined for Heaven.
