DAY FOR dead GRANNIES

I feel cheated, I really do.  In other places, people have a day just for their beloved dead grannies, but do you think good ol’ Christian America would be so considerate and kind? 

Not! 

Everyone but us!  In Babylonia and ancient Greece there was the Feast of All Souls.  In Rome the ancestors were celebrated every February.  The Buddhists hold their Feast of the Dead on April 15.  And even China and Japan have their annual Feast of Lanterns -- just for dead people.*

But not us, oh no!  

When I was growing up, my poor family had to sneak around the graveyards on Memorial Day, and shoot furtive glances left and right to make sure no one was watching.  

Then we'd drop flowers on the graves of our non-war-hero ancestors, and scurry away ASAP before we were caught red-handed honoring someone who didn’t die in a war.  

(For those of you outside the US, America’s Memorial Day is technically a day for honoring dead soldiers, not ordinary grammas and grampas.) 

But since I now have Samhuinn to honor my dead, I feel lucky in a big way.  I can openly feel fuzzy and warm about them again, commune with them, love them up from this side of the veil (which is swirling ever and ever thinner even as I write). 

SO, HAPPY SAMHUINN TO ONE AND TO ALL!  (Aren’t we lucky?!)

__________________________

* Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dict. of Folklore, Vol. 1, p. 38