Today I went with a few folks to Sumpango, Sacatepequez to see the big kite festival that is part of Dia de Todos Santos. The day commemorates the beatification of loved ones who have gone before us. Many people travel to family grave sites to clean and decorate them, and many people travel very far to do so. The trip to Sumpango today took over two and a half hours due to the masses of people trying to get out of the capital; on a normal day, the trip would have taken about forty minutes.
There is something poetic about being so dedicated to remembering loved ones who have passed. I like that today provides a concrete way for people to honor their families and to be reminded of how fleeting this life is. I don't consider myself to have had a tragic life by any means, but I have lost people whom I continue to miss. There are people who, I believe, if they were still here, would make life a bit funnier (Papaw, my dad's father), a bit more interesting (Mamaw, my dad's mother), a bit sweeter (Ingrid, my mom's close friend), and a bit more special (Mr. Meng, my best friend's dad). I want to remember them, honor their legacies, and I hope that I will see them again in heaven.
A fitting tribute for All Saints Day. It made me think of one of my favorite hymns - "I Sing A Song of the Saints of God"
ReplyDelete1. I sing a song of the saints of God,
patient and brave and true,
who toiled and fought and lived and died
for the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
and one was a shepherdess on the green;
they were all of them saints of God, and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.
2. They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
and his love made them strong;
and they followed the right for Jesus' sake
the whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
and one was slain by a fierce wild beast;
and there's not any reason, no, not the least,
why I shouldn't be one too.
3. They lived not only in ages past;
there are hundreds of thousands still.
The world is bright with the joyous saints
who love to do Jesus' will.
You can meet them in school, on the street, in the store,
in church, by the sea, in the house next door;
they are saints of God, whether rich or poor,
and I mean to be one too.