Mangalore: Families Pray for Departed Kin on All Souls' Day

Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje/Annu Bejai
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Nov 2: It was a sober gathering of bereaved families at the city's graveyards as Christians paid respects to their departed loved ones.

November 1 which was once marked a new year in Christian Europe is now marked as All Saints' Day, followed by All Souls' Day on November 2. But the families of the dear departed start their collective tryst with their dear ones on the evening of All Saints' Day itself.

The graveyard is cleaned, given a coat of paint, decorated with flowers and candles, The families then pray for the dear departed and wish them eternal rest.

As devotional music is played, priests go round blessing the graves, with the families of those interned there gather round in somber vigil. Apart from sprucing of the graveyard it is lit with medicinal candles.

The bereaved families who have lost their dear ones clean up the cemetery once a year on this day. It is the time to remember, recollect and pray for those whose absence would have left a void in their lives.