The day of the dead is one
of the most important holidays in the Philippines. In order of ranking, I
believe it is the third in importance among Christian holiday here just below
Christmas and Lent. Family get together to remember their loved ones. Tombs and niches are repainted, redecorated, food are offered and candles are litm which according to tradition, guides the spirit back home.
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| Filipinos believe that the dead visits the living during all souls day. |
Though its origin and
whether it should be accepted as an official holiday is debated among the
thousands of Christian denominations, one thing stands out, the belief in spirits of the dead and the spiritual realm is an integral part of the Christian religion.
Philosophically, Socrates
believed that death is one of two things: annihilation or migration. If death
is annihilation, there is everything to gain for it is an eternal rest and if
it is a migration, there is also nothing to fear for we cannot bring with us
all the imperfections of the material body.
Plato, a student of
Socrates, on the other hand held that death is the release of the soul from the
material body. Plato has a dualistic view of reality, material and idea; body
and soul. The soul, trapped in the imperfect material body, is incorruptible
and eternal.
Religion on the other hand is an
attempt to allay the fear of death; the denial of the finality of death,
separation and annihilation. This fear is what gave death its evil persona.
Most religions treat death as an evil to be overcome, it is the product of
transgressions against a deity, or a state of ignorance, and for some a
continuous cycle of rebirth until the final state of nirvana, which to some is
really nothing but annihilation, is achieved.
With the Abrahamic religion,
the idea of death is tied with the idea of justice and retribution, it is the product of rebellion. This is especially
true with Christianity where the souls of the dead would be brought before God
and judged. The saints are rewarded with paradise while the heathens and
reprobates are condemned to the eternal torture of hellfire.
Personally, what I fear most
about death is not its finality. I am more comfortable with the idea of death
as the ‘end of it all”. The idea of living an eternal life is terrible. Imagine
the ennui after a few millennia. Of course, some argue that with immortality we
lose our human frailties. We have a new deified body, a new psyche, in fact,
the scripture claims that there’ll be no sex (or gender) in the afterlife. The
idea of losing all these things, our frailties, faculties, sensibilities, our identity, will result to a life of immortality that is depersonalized.
It is zombified existence. No matter how blissful it is, I think it is worse
than annihilation.
I not dismissing the idea
of life after death. I mean lack of evidence does not mean something is not,
but the descriptions presented by religion is limited by the language and the
metaphors.
Another option is
reincarnation. I for one have no problem with this idea. Thinking about it,
this is more attune with the idea of the conservation of energy. I mean if
souls are energy, it cannot be created nor destroyed, it could only be
transformed. My problem with this idea is the ensuing dogma that is used to
promote it as evidenced in the Hindu caste system.
What I
fear most is that after death the consciousness, with its full faculties and sensibilities
intact continuing in a disembodied existence in an ethereal environment
detached and abstract, in limbo. I'd rather have definitive and final death.
But then again, after death,
I may not have the same consciousness. I could have a transcendent
consciousness that knows no physical, emotional and temporal limitations. It
may not even be a personal one, it could be a part of singular consciousness.
Of course this is mere speculation.
in the end, we all die. Personally, i find it is a good practice to speculate about it. think about it and find how I can get myself ready for it (no one is really ready for it) .
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