Halloween is the biggest non-recognized holiday in the US. No one gets the day, and kids are expected to get school. Many people still host festivities throughout the day. Parties are becoming more popular, I didn’t have many trick or treaters knock on my door this year. This they did got a hell of lot of candy though (because we purchased too much).
Also, because of the high Latin influence in my state, many people will celebrate Day of the Day tomorrow. My university has an alter of the dead to honor the friends and family of students who have passed. It’s tough for me to go and pay respects though. My community is a high violence one, so there’s a lot of kids being remembered by the alter. It’s super depressing, but it reminds me of who I’m fighting for everyday.
Last year’s Day of the Dead was one of the hardest days of my life. My high school (grade 9) history teacher (who I absolutely loved) had passed only 2 weeks before after a surprise heart attack in a elevator. On top that their had been many traject deaths of old teachers, teachers family members, and the family members of students. Because I attended a Catholic school, we had a prayer service. As our tradition commands, we read off the names of the deceased one by one. The teacher was reading the names did well at first. However, he got to his recently passed brother, and people began to lose it left and right. He couldn’t speak, no one wanted to talk, it was all too much. Eventually he got the name out, however the next two names of the list were old faculty members who were his best friends (one of whom was my favorite teacher of all time). At this point I lost it and started crying (and I was trying my hardest to keep my composure for friends so I could support them, but I just couldn’t). It was honestly the most unifying experience I’ve ever been apart of. In the moment, and for the rest of day, people really rallied around each other. It was honestly amazing. My class had also planned a surprise honor for the end of the ceremony. My history teacher’s name was the last read off. Every single person in my grade brought one single rose (all of different colors, sizes, shapes, origins) and put on a table surrounding his picture. It’s honestly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, or been a part of.
I’m really sad that it wouldn’t be able to have that experience this year. If I can find the heart, I have a well-written obituary of my loved ones that I might share.