A DIFFERENT KIND OF NOVEMBER
November 1 and 2 will not be like last year, or the years before that.
The cemeteries will be empty of the usual crowd of families – moms and dads chatting with relatives they haven’t been with, kids running round and teasing each other, elderlies quietly sitting, staring at a loved one’s tombstone and remembering good old days. Unlike all the 1st and 2nd day of November, the graveyards’ going to be dead quiet.
The recent order pursues that we can’t come visit the graves as a preventive measure on the spread of the Corona Virus 19. Those days cause a huge crowd, and so it is but a reasonable enough ground for suspending the usual activity.
But the order applies ONLY on the All Saint’s and All Soul’s day. It means we can still visit our loved ones the entire month of October and, if you prefer, any day of November.
If you think about it, only the dates and the typical scenes change. The purpose remains. On any day of this month, we can still come and pay respect, reminisce great memories, and offer them prayers and flowers.
In fact, if we reflect on it, the day doesn’t matter because we surely think about them and miss them everyday. The crowd doesn’t matter a bit either. What matters is we take time to go back to the place we said goodbye to them, with a basket of fresh and lovely blooms to express our love, and brighten their resting place for the days to come.
