All Souls Day: A day to remember our lost loved ones

By: Andrew Nowel, Editor-In-Chief

What is All Souls Day, and why does it matter to the students of Canisius? If you’ve ever wondered why students, faculty, staff and alumni all gather in Christ the King Chapel on or around Nov. 2, All Souls Day brings everyone together to remind the people in our lives that have passed on to the next.

So, what is All Souls Day? Pope Francis explained the day as a day to remember all of the faithful that have departed. At Canisius, Fr. Fred Betti, the chaplain of the university, says it’s a way to bring everyone together to celebrate the lives of loved ones. “This is one aspect of our faith that we celebrate all the time, outside of just All Souls Day, because when we celebrate Mass, we pray for the deceased and our loved ones during the prayer of the faithful,” said Betti on Wednesday.

So how does Canisius celebrate All Souls Day? Taking a tradition from his time at Saint Michael’s, Betti has used a memorial tree with nametags on the tree to represent loved ones that have passed away. This year, light will be used to represent the same idea. Candles with names written on them will be the way to remember loved ones of students, faculty, staff and alumni. This is a way that showcases how light becomes an important part of life after death.

Betti used the example of the Day of the Dead as a way to connect cultures. The Day of the Dead is celebrated between the first and second of November as a way to remind loved ones in Latino cultures. As seen in the movie “Coco,” the Day of the Dead is sacred, and it serves as a way to connect the living and the dead.

It’s the same for All Souls Day in the Catholic faith. Even though the day is a Catholic tradition, other faith backgrounds and cultures have similar traditions. For a university that strives to welcome everyone, especially within the Christ the King faith community, Canisius uses All Souls Day to bring everyone together.

If you have a loved one that you want to remember this Sunday, reach out to Fr. Betti at bettif@canisius.edu or Caroline King, the Assistant Director of Campus Ministry, at king116@canisius.edu.

No matter how many years have passed, the loved ones we’ve lost will always be remembered in our hearts, and Betti and the entire Canisius community will pray for them on Sunday. Connecting the living and the dead unites us as a community, Pope Francis once said, and that community is a family. “For this reason, we pray for each other,” said Pope Francis.