November, the 11th month of the year, is a month that supports many meaningful courses with lots of holidays across the globe. In Catholicism, it is the end of the liturgical year, the new year of the church starts on the first Sunday in December.
One of the important observances of the month is that it is a month we remember and pray for the dead in different traditions and religious groups, nationally or internationally. The different dates in November that commemorate the dead are as follows;
November 1 is the feast of All Saints Day in the Catholic church.
November 2 is the feast of All Souls Day in the Catholic Church.
November 1-2 is the Day of the Dead, Mexican culture, celebrated across Latin America.
November 11 is Death and Duty Day, in honour of those who died in World War 1.
November 11 is the Remembrance/Armistice Day, held in the United Kingdom, to commemorate the lives of people who fought and died in wars.
November 1-30 (all through November) is the International Bereaved Sibling Awareness Month, held worldwide to recognize the grief of siblings.
In these days, we remember our mortality and the lives of the departed.
This year, death has loomed in large numbers, recorded in different shades from both the young and old. Only this month, I have counted 5 burial and funeral ceremonies of people I know, both young and old.
Though death awaits us all, it is the bereaved, not the deceased, who suffers the pain of death. However, for the living, It’s a privilege to learn from their death and there is a whole lot to learn.
We cannot escape ageing and dying. Those that we mourn today only had gone before us to a destination we all must go.
Therefore, for us the living, we pray for a peaceful departure, a ripe and a happy death. For the dead, we pray for God’s perpetual light to shine upon them and for their souls to rest in peace, Amen.
Dead or alive, we look forward to the end that is near. Romans 14:8–9: sums it up, “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
✍️ Amara Ann Unachukwu
