November for Saints and Family

Today is the feast of All Saints, so it has been bigger than a Sunday, and everyone is celebrating. And it is a wonderful day to celebrate, because the sky is so clear and blue. The weather has begun to cool off, and yet there is no rain, so it has been possible to take some time outside for a stroll, a chat, a deep philosophical conversation on the way for coffee!

Even though it is on a Saturday, and we don't really get an extra holiday for All Saints Day this year, everyone has been in a very festive mood. The morning was peaceful and I met a few friends for a long leisurely breakfast -- and that is quiet a feat when that means a continental breakfast. You may think it is impossible to take your time over a roll and coffee, but we chatted for nearly an hour, with good humor and great stories. Later, just after noon, I joined a small group for a quiet and meditative Mass in the chapel inside the professors' quarters. The simplicity leant itself to a prayer of quiet and depth. This was so in keeping with All Saints/All Souls, which remains one of my favorite holidays really.

All Saints Day Mass - José Luis presides 

Next Wednesday or Thursday a group of the professors will up into the Roman Hills, to the town of Genzano for a visit to the cemetery where there is the tomb of many of the deceased members of the University province. Yes, the UPS is a province all on its own for the Salesians.

Since it is the custom in Italy to visit the tombs of family members during this month, the Salesians do the same with their deceased brothers and priests. There is a chapel in the cemetery and we'll celebrate a mass there, during which people will have the chance to name those that they remember. After that we'll go together into the town (which overlooks a lake that fills a volcanic crater). There we will get some roasted chestnuts and probably some slices of salame (and bread, and cheese), and continue the remembering and chatting. Usually we are separated into departments and communities, so I only see Salesians from other communities in passing. This is one event when we join together. Every year has been memorable for that.

Damasio presiding at the Mass for Deceased Salesians at Genzano 2013

All this underlines the fact that the Feast of All Saints and All Souls Day (Ognissanti e il giorno dei Defunti) are family days in Italy. The whole family comes together (or tries to) in order to remember, to give thanks, to honor the members of the family who have died and to encourage the living. The closest thing in America to this is Thanksgiving Day.

But don't trust me on that. After all, my experience of America comes from what I learned in an Italian family, and I now wonder if my family did not adapt the American holidays to fit the reasoning and the values of the Italian, Catholic holy days that have been celebrated here for generations. Maybe that is why on Thanksgiving, even though we had the turkey (which nobody really liked very much), we also had lasagne, and so many other little specialties that would have gone along with All Saints/All Souls in the land of our family's origins.

Gotta love it.