Happy All Souls Day: the Day of the Dead.

Today is All Souls Day when Christians - Anglicans and Catholics and some Protestants - remember the dead that have gone on before them by praying for them.

Orthodox ("Eastern") Christians have their own days when they pray for the dead.

All Souls Day follows All Saints Day (1st November) and whilst All Saints Day helps remind us that the Church comprises of the Communion of Saints, All Souls Day helps remind us that we have our failings and it is efficacious to pray for the souls of the dead so that they may (as Christians have asked for their deceased family and friends for millennia) finally Rest in Peace - i.e. enter Heaven.

Following the Hollywood antics of Hallowe'en, it is right to remember the feasts of our forefathers throughout Europe and to not forget our dead ancestors on All Souls Day.

It also reminds me of when GK Chesterton wrote, in Orthodoxy, that democracy disenfranchises our ancestors:

"Tradition means giving a vote to most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead."

Chesterton goes on to say:

"Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our father."

Which is why we should always remember, in an age of seemingly endless automatons, TV-braindead, multi-culti morons, mammon worshippers and reds of every shade (blood red Marxist to homo-pink), that the weight of history and the strength of our forefathers is for Tradition (aka Faith, Family, Nation).

Link:

BBC on All Souls Day
Wikipedia on All Souls Day