The Christian holidays
by ENZO BIANCHI
Death is a passage, a passover, an exodus from this world to the Father: for believers it is no longer an enigma, but a mystery

With this commemoration we are in the heart of fall: the trees lose their leaves, morning mists take longer to lift, the day grows shorter, and the light loses its intensity. And yet, there are patches on earth, the cemeteries, which appear to be spring lawns in flower, which at dusk are animated by the crackling of fireflies. Yes, because for centuries the inhabitants of our lands, once the season of fruits is over and the grain destined to be reborn in spring is sown, have wanted in the first days of November to remember the dead.

It was the Celts who placed in this period of the year the commemoration of the dead, a commemoration that the Church later christianized, making it an intensely felt anniversary with wide participation, not only in past centuries and in the countryside, but even today and even in the most anonymous cities, despite the dominant culture that tends to remove death. In accepting this commemoration, this human response to the “great question” posed to every man, the Church has projected it in the light of paschal faith, which sings of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and for this reason wanted it to be preceded by the feast of all saints, as if to indicate that the saints draw along with them the dead, take them by the hand, to remind all of us that no one saves himself by himself. At the sunset of the feast of all saints Christians not only commemorate the dead, but go to cemeteries to visit them, as if to meet them and to show them their affection by covering their tombs with flowers in affection that in this circumstance is capable even to take the evil that could be read in the life of those dear to us and warp it in a great compassion that embraces even the shadows, one’s own and those of others.