Dr Kevin Myers
Hallowe’en is on the horizon and with it we find many of our friends and neighbours preparing to meet the macabre. In this mist of the seasonal jovial ghoul, however, we also take time to reflect on our lives and, rather importantly remember our dead.
In many ways, Christianly is a religious tradition built upon death. After all, a central theological pillar of the Christian faith rests on salvation, that is the belief that death is not the end of life but a rather a point of transition. Importantly, Catholic theology then offers the living a means to further engage with their dead, to assist them in their journey into the hereafter.
This is done by carrying out various rites, Masses for the dead, months minds, anniversary memorials and or prayers to saints. While many of these practices take place throughout the year, the Church does designate one month to the attention of the deceased. That is, of course, the month of November.
Perhaps the two most popular days in the November liturgical calendar occurs on the first two days of the month.
On November 1, the Church celebrates All Saints’ Day (or All Hallows’ Day), followed by All Souls’ day on November 2. Throughout these two days, Catholics are invited to pray for both saints and the dead, to engage the Divine in search of solace and redemption. Within Catholicism, All Souls’ day is invariably linked to belief in purgatory, a day when the living can further assist their deceased in their journey towards Heaven.
Interestingly, November 2 is also an important date in the Mexican calendar, a time when the faithful bring their dead back to life by means of symbolic, commemorative practice. While Día de Muertos, the ‘Day of the Dead’ is largely a Hispanic cultural practice, much of the rite contains strong Catholic representation.
Returning to Ireland, how do Irish people engage with Church death rituals throughout the month of November and what can this tell us about the place of the Church within wider Irish society? Evidence suggests that Irish people continue to resource Catholic belief and practice in relation to death.
The clearest example of this is the continued popularity of the Catholic funeral service. Irish weddings have become increasingly secular, but Irish funerals have not. It is right to point out that these funeral services are often contested events, where the family of the deceased comes into disagreement with clergy regarding the appropriateness of secular music or personalised eulogies at the service. But such disagreements are relatively rare and limited. What is more important to remember is that Irish people still overwhelmingly wish to hold funeral services within the church, even when there are plenty of alternatives available to them.
While traditional funeral services remain popular, newer Catholic remembrance services are also building in popularity. In recent years, Light up a Memory Masses, which typically take place at the end of November, have become quite popular. These services, developed principally by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, draw together members of the community who have lost a loved one in the previous year. Those gathered at the service are given a lit candle, often representing the lives of their loved ones who have passed on. While data on attitudes towards these Masses are extremely limited, anecdotally, these services seem quite popular. In my own research examining Irish grief and mourning practices, I found that a significant number of interviewees referenced these services as being both meaningful and helpful when facing grief.
Interviewees seemed to focus their attention on three key themes: candle imagery, time of the year and support networks. Many compared the use of candles in the service to that of other bereavement-based initiatives, particularly the annual Darkness into Light walks organised by Pieta House.
While these church services take place in November, other organisations, such as Milford Hospice, Limerick, have adopted them for use in their annual Christmas fundraising drives. Such a move further speaks to the popularity of these November rituals.
What does this mean for the Church? It is a cliché to point out that Catholic Church in Ireland is in decline. The reasons for this are largely understood; the development of a modern, liberal and globalised society, processes heavily influenced by technological innovations and the expansion of the media have undermined traditional religious narratives, decoupling faith-based worldviews from everyday social and cultural life. In this manner, Church decline is a side effect, a consequence of other changes.
However, this is not to say that the Church has no future; it most certainly does. The issue of death will likely be with us for some time, and with it, many will look to create meaning.
Psychology and medical science can improve quality of life but it cannot fully speak to the human search of meaning, a meaning which is often rooted in religious and spiritual belief.
This is the Achilles heel of rationalism: its core principles of evidence-based understandings speak only to the moments leading up to death, not after it. The evidence of this can be seen in the continued popular engagement with Catholic post-death ritual, practices on full display throughout the month of November. It can be seen in the popular engagement with contemporary religious rituals, such as the Light up a Memory services.
In this sense, death can be a catalyst to keep the Church alive.
Dr Kevin Myers is a writer and a sociologist, currently working as a Research Associate at Hibernia College, Dublin. His research interests include examining issues surrounding culture, religion, meaning, death, dying and bereavement.