Saints and Great-grandmothers

Today is all about dead people. Awesome. Let's dive right in...

As mentioned in yesterday's blog, today is All Saints Day. It's a day to celebrate the Saints, all the Saints. All 10,000 + Saints, known and unknown. Most are martyrs, which explains the outrageously high number. Not all of them are the Apostle Paul, or Mother Teresa. But all of them have done something courageous, impressive and outstanding for the furthering of the kingdom. All have answered God's sometimes scary call, and have lived (sometimes died) for their faith. Cheers to you.
Honoring martyrs started as early as 100 AD, quickly became a very important Jewish tradition and remains a big holiday for Catholics and certain protestants today.

Today's also Día de los Muertos, which is a day of celebrating those who have past, mostly relatives, ancestors and friends. It's celebrated mostly in Mexico, some in a few other Latin countries. They have parades, prepare elaborate meals and...spend the night in graveyards. They place little alters by graves- food, marigolds, maybe something belonging to the deceased like a ring or shirt, and a photo.
It sounds a little morbid, but it's not a sad night. It's a celebration. Stories, jokes, memories, good food, creepy camping. It's part of how their culture copes with death. They fear it like we do, but instead of running away from it, they laugh in death's face. They live along side the dead.