The respect, honor, and remembrance of the dead in Christianity are among the weird practices in the religion. Although Christians base their faith on life after death, the attention given to dead people is very scaring. To start with, is the honorable burial offered to a dead person and constant prayers, that God may take the soul of the dead person to heaven is unique on its own. Christian believes that when a person dies God judges the person based on their life on the earth. If a person was a sinner, he is send straight to hell, and if a person was righteous is taken to heaven. Based on this, it is hard to understand why then should Christians keep on praying for a dead person whose judgment has already been done. What difference could it make to spend the whole day, weeks, or months praying for a person whose soul is already in hell? Could it be they all think just like on earth, loved one can appeal for the dead person’s case in heaven? That is a question that can only be answered by them.
Beside this, Christians have two days in their calendar where they celebrate the dead. This comes on 1st and 2nd of every November of the year. On 1st of November, Christians celebrate all dead festival where they take the names of their loved one who died to the church and their souls are prayed for. Normally, the name of the dead are read aloud and prayed that God may rescue their souls. On the 2nd of November is all Saint Day festival, in this day Christians celebrate those who have managed to get into heaven. In the contrary to the day of all dead where Christians pray for their loved ones whose fate they don’t know, on this day, Christians pray to the Saints to intercede on their behalf. Saints are believed to be the individuals who lived a holy life on earth and managed to be honored in heaven. Normally, they are selected based on their commitment to God when they were living on earth, and the miracles performed if people intercede using them.
For instance, if a child is very sick and one request a person who he or she thinks got into heaven from their good deeds, and by any chance that child gets well, then more prayers will be said and if more miracles are performed then ,that person is considered to be a saint God in heaven. This is not the only time that saints are remembered. Some Christians’ denomination such as Catholic, always ask for saints intervention in most of their prayers. In addition, they baptize their followers giving them saints’ name to be emulated in life.
To climax the two days of celebrating the dead, Christians always conduct a festival known as hallowing on the 2nd of November. Hallows is another name given to all saints day and it means holy or sanctified. The weirdest part of this festival is how it is conducted. Christians’ are allowed to put on scaling masks of skulls and wander around scaling others and having fun for making them scaled. Hallowing is a holiday full of mysterious customs which are associated with pagans and which, each has a different history. The wearing of costumes, for example, and roving from door to door demanding treats is a tradition connected to Christians in the first era, when it was believed that the souls of the dead were around and out, along with demons, witches, and faires. Currently, hallowing involves men and women in all disguise conceivable take to the streets of big towns and parading past grinningly carved, o’lanterns of candlelit jack, re-enacting customs containing a length pedigree. Their masked tricks are believed to appease, tease, mock, and challenge the dead forces of the soul, of the night, and of the otherworld that turns to be their world on the night of transcedency, inverted roles, and reversible possibilities. In doing so, they believe that they are reaffirming death, and its position as a part of life in an exciting celebration of a magic and holy evening (Santino, 2013).
The most confusing part in this ceremony is its connection with pagans’ history and the purpose in which it is conducted. Based on Christians’ believe when people die their souls are either taken to heaven or to heal, and remain there waiting to for the second coming of Jesus Christ, this is apart from Catholics who believe in live in purgatory where sinful souls are punished. Therefore, it is not clear why they have maintained this practice even after understanding that souls of Christians are not supposed to roam around after death. The practiced can simply be described as misplaced or it can be used to illustrate the confusion or shaken believes of life after death in Christian religion (Gty.org, 2014).
Conclusion
Some religious believe and practices emplaced by different religions may seem to be out of place or mysterious to non followers. For instance, the treatment of the dead by Christian religion seems ridiculous especially, when they intercede for some dead souls and ask for others to intercede for them. In addition, inclusion of pagans’ mode of celebrating the dead in their hallowing festival creates a great mystery on what exactly Christians believe is concerning the dead. These practices will always appear weird and away from the true religion, especially when viewed by individuals from other religions and who receive much critics regarding their faith from Christians.
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