How an Ancient Tradition of Mourning Became a CELEBRATION OF LIFE, MEMORY, AND HOPE IN THE CATHOLIC FAITH

November, in the Catholic tradition, is known as the Month of the Dead, a time devoted to remembering, mourning, and celebrating those who have gone before us. Cemeteries begin to bloom with fresh flowers, and prayers rise like whispers through the air. Far from being a month of gloom, it is one filled with quiet reverence and deep hope. Its origins, though deeply Christian, reach back through centuries to the earliest human efforts to honour the dead and to find meaning in the mystery of life after death.

- 

The instinct to honour the dead is as old as humanity itself. Long before the rise of Christianity, civilisations from Egypt to Rome practised rituals to commemorate their ancestors. The Romans, for instance, observed Parentalia, a festival held each February to honour deceased