Growing up as a Catholic kid, it was confusing.

Probably exacerbated by the sugar hangover from Halloween.

The Sisters at Sacred Heart School would test us: What. Comes. Next?

Well, there was All Saints Day and All Souls Day, but in what order? (I got crafty one year and noticed they were alphabetical.)

Good heavens, no wonder we were confused. Here’s what Wikipedia says: All Saints’ Day, also known as All Hallows’ Day, the Feast of All Saints, the Feast of All Hallows, the Solemnity of All Saints, and Hallowmas, is a Christian solemnity celebrated in honor of all the saints of the church, whether they are known or unknown.

If you don’t mind a little sidebar: have you heard the one about Saint Joseph? While we were working on selling Mom and Dad’s lovely home back in the summer, more than one good Catholic urged us to bury a statute of Jesus’s stepdad in front of the house. Exactly 12 inches under ground.

And upside down.

I’d never heard of such a thing. Neither had Gary. But a quick Google search brings up multiple websites with step-by-step instructions – and, of course, opportunities to purchase poor Saint Joseph.

Why upside down? To make him more uncomfortable, of course, so that he works harder to sell your damn house.

We opted not to dig up my parents’ yard. Perhaps Saint Joseph was so pleased that he helped anyway.

So that takes care of the Saints. The next day is for Souls, meaning all those who’ve passed away.

Losing both parents in 17 months, every day feels like All Souls Day.

But there are so many other souls to remember. People we knew and loved as well as those who came – and left – long before us.

I had a feeling Mom might have addressed this day in a poem. Indeed, there were several to choose from, including this one from 1998:

All Souls Day in Cellophane

Lights of my life
this dawn I bear you up in baskets
to our autumn mantel
each photo dressed in cellophane
young faces old and in-between
the colors of your hair and eyes
are jewels to me
and moons of joy your smiles

Yesterday’s saints are not the lanterns
that you are to me
you Mother on a pony
you Father by the lake
posed or impromptu
it is all the same
family friends beloveds

~ joan vayo 4 November 1998

Here’s that photo of Grandma on the pony:

I’ve looked for a photo of Grandpa Cassidy by a lake, but have not come upon it yet. So instead, here are Mom’s parents in their New Haven backyard.

The fir tree in the background of that photo? Dad told me he remembered leaping over them (there were two) as a teen.

A sincere prayer for all souls who have left this world for the next, where surely there is poetry, music, flowers, and art. Plus a long queue of former homeowners, waiting to apologize to a certain saint whose statue is still one-foot-under back on earth. And upside down.

“All Souls Day in Cellophane” © 1998 Joan C. Vayo. All rights reserved.

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