YOUNG VOICE
Dinner beside a tombstone
The sky was blue as ever, painted perfectly with sketches of puffy clouds. The green grass tickled the restless feet of children chasing each other in circles. Several food kiosks crowded the sidewalks with a display of mouth-watering delights. Countless tents were erected in the entire area and there, families share resounding laughs and gossips. Gazing at such was a pleasure. For a second, I thought I was in a locality's suburban park joining a huge family reunion. I brought my head down and caught sight of gray marbles with fancy name engravings and a variety of flowers outlining the plates. I was in a memorial park, a place for the dead where the sky was bluest; the grass was greenest and the best place for a family reunion.
Cemeteries remind us of death. Yet, the days of black mourning umbrellas and the ambiance of solitude was pushed away to make way for a celebration.
Man had been practicing rituals for their dead. The Neanderthals had red ochre and the Egyptians had embalming. For so long, the living had given much respect and importance in remembering the dead, in commemorating the life those departed had once lived. Yet, the birth of high density cholesterol fastfoods and the sheer need to vacate from half a year's worth of work had baptized a less melancholic and tissue-thrift remembrance of the dearly deceased.
At some point it may sound quite unruly for the still breathing to take advantage of the dead people's day to lean back and gather for a family reunion. But, the way I look at it, there is not much point of spending the entire day crying hearts out of a fifty-year-old worm-infested skeleton. Their time has long been done, and their mission either fulfilled or otherwise has been defined by their fate. It is then more meaningful to give more focus on the living people we barely meet once a year.
The gravesites with their flourishing epitaphs will remain as long as the memorial parks are in business, but the opportunity to spend precious time with relatives and family just comes once in a while.
It is amusing and heart-warming to listen to families talking about the memories they had together with someone who has passed away. The celebration of the dead bridges the distance between relatives, friends and even families who live far from each other. We still pay homage to the dead and the context of respect and honor remains, but as innovative as we are, a little twist was added and we integrated another value, to hold the family ties tighter. It gave me butterflies fluttering inside my tummy, when I saw what seemed to be the departed's husband and son who were talking to her as if she was just right in front of them. Then what seemed to be a minute later came what I presumed to be the departed's parents who brought some snacks for their cheerful vigil. The day the husband and the son remembered a mother who cooked the finest meals and the wife who smothered the most delightful kisses, was also the day when a much closer relationship with the in-laws began.
The night grew dimmer; the developing first quarter moon shone its silver gloom over the graveyard. Yellow glow from vigil candles identified each tombstone and reminded a depressing aura of longing. Petals of flowers started to drop as the chilly breeze passed along each grave. I gaze upon such sight, and if I didn't realize the hundreds of children still chasing around in circles with their glowing sticks and hoops, if I didn't see the dozens of families eating dinner together beside the tombstones, if I didn't hear the joyous music echoing in the entire memorial park, I would have thought I was in the most dramatic or scariest movie nominated in the Oscars.
That day, I lied down beside my great grandparent's gravesite with a comfy car carpet and blanket to rest on. Who couldn't resist? I ate dinner heartedly with almost three cups of rice in a place where necrophobics dread. I ran around with my cousins, with wide smiles on our faces, on the streets where most horror films are shot. All Soul's Day may at first sound be a reason for teary eyes and unhappy realizations. But it doesn't stop man's innate ability to be happy amid the heartbreaking truths of loss, grief and death. All Soul's Day is just another day for a much awaited family reunion.
I guess it was right for some of my friends to send me a text message saying, Happy All Soul's Day.
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