I am a part of all that I have met. – Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Day of the Dead is a feast of the harvest, of gathering memories, and of adding the candles of one’s home to the many fires of the community. It is ancient and, to many, a holy time when the dead are thought to return to the earth and mingle with the living. Even if revenants do not revisit us, we can still honor those ghosts who do exist: the ghosts that haunt our minds; our memories of those we love who live no more. Each November 2, we can invite them into our hearts and honor them in our homes. We can use this day to celebrate a part of what makes us human, that remains past the hours of death that come as surely as rivers flow, congested freeway traffic creeps to its multitudinous destinations, and darkness follows sunlight.