We Don't Have Halloween - We Have All Saints' Day

It's not that we really don't have the Halloween, but the vast majority of people in my country would still tell you it's just another, from the west imported, show product and pagan custom, among people, also called The Witches' Night. As such Halloween which is on October 31st spreads and gets accepted slowly although it's getting more popular every year, but as it seems it would hardly ever beat our custom and old tradition of celebrating the The All Saint's Day.

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In contrary to scary and ugly symbols of Halloween the All Saint's Day is celebrated with flowers and candles where flowers symbolize the life, growth, and beauty while candles symbolize the light and warmth.

The All Saint's Day which is on November 1st is also our national holiday, and as it's the day before All Souls Feast which is also widely celebrated, it gives the All Saint's Day even the higher value and broader meaning.

Officially the All Saint's Day is described as the day to commemorate all saints, not only known but as well unknown ones, where unknown means all the people who are not officially proclaimed saints but who lived their lives as such, doing good deeds and spreading hope and positivity.

In my country, the All Saint's Day is the day when you can "meet" almost whole your family and friends, living same as already past away ones, at the same place - on, for that day with flowers and thousands of candles beautifully decorated cemeteries.

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My family's custom is to gather, and then we all together go to the cemetery where our lost ones are buried. There we walk from one grave to another, stop next to each to light the candles and pray together for their souls.

The younger family members are always the most curious ones to find out whose grave each of them is and to hear, over and over again, the stories who they were, how they lived their lives and how they are related to them.

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Every family member has a different memory of the character and specifics of the deceased or some different experience with particular past away person. As well, every family member would recall of some different occasions and events in which they were involved and participated. Therefore, the walk from one grave to another it's always a good family history lesson but as well a big fun with a lot of shared jokes and laughter.

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Along the way, we always stop next to the central cemetery cross where we light the candles and pray too, as first for those from our family that we maybe missed, forgot or couldn't find their graves and then also for the souls of all the people, no matter if they were buried in that cemetery or elsewhere, to find their peace.

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Beside bigger candles and lampions we always have a bunch of small candles for the graves without any or without flowers that we would pass by on our route. That way we are leaving some love, light, and warmth even to those we don't know but whose family members or friends, for any reason, were not able to visit them or afford to buy a flower or a candle.

It's the obligation of the youngest family members, mostly children who adore it but also take it very seriously, to spot such graves and light a candle there.

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Except for the first and last image, all other photos were taken by me, yesterday on the All Saint's Day 2017 at Zagreb's biggest and most famous cemetery called Mirogoj, when my family was visiting, on this earth, the last resting place of our dear past ones.

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Posted on Thursday, November 2, 2017

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_{Image and photo sources:
Image 01 - Photo from Pixabay. Credits to Myriams-Fotos for gerbera-gypsophila-candles, used under the CC0 Creative Commons license.
Image 02, 03, 04 and 05 - Own photos, taken with my Xperia XA mobile phone. ~ © 2017 steemit.com/@ana-maria ~ All rights reserved!
Image 06 - Photo from Pixabay. Credits to klimkin for candles-heart-flame, used under the CC0 Creative Commons license.}