All Souls' Day

OK... I know it is weird for me to rant about this, but my brother didnt manage OR fail to inform me (as i am very forgetful) that today is the day we need to go to the cemetery to say 'hi!' to my grandparents... he only remember when all my aunties and uncles were back to Melaka... only he realize "Oh Shit! Tomorrow is All Souls' Day!". Thank you my bro... and now I am tagged "not being filial..."

Why do we celebrate today? I do a search, and wikipedia gave a... quite a good definition to it... haha!

The Western celebration (as found in Wikipedia) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Souls%27_Day
The custom of setting apart a special day for intercession for certain of the faithful departed is very old. But the celebration of general intercession on 2 November was first established by St. Odilo of Cluny (d. 1048) at his monastery of Cluny in 998. The decree ordaining the celebration is printed in the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum (Saec. VI, pt. i. p. 585). From Cluny the custom spread to the other houses of the Cluniac order, which became the largest and most extensive network of monasteries in Europe. The celebration was soon adopted in several dioceses in France, and spread throughout the Western Church. It was accepted in Rome only in the fourteenth century. While 2 November remained the liturgical celebration, in time the entire month of November became associated in the Western Catholic tradition with prayer for the departed; lists of names of those to be remembered being placed in the proximity of the altar on which the sacrifice of the mass is offered.

A legend became associated with the institution of the celebration. According to Jesse Voyles in his Life of St Odilo, a pilgrim returning from the Holy Land was cast by a storm on a desolate island. A hermit living there told him that amid the rocks was a chasm communicating with purgatory, from which perpetually rose the groans of tortured souls. The hermit also claimed he had heard the demons complaining of the efficacy of the prayers of the faithful, and especially the monks of Cluny, in rescuing their victims. Upon returning home, the pilgrim hastened to inform the abbot of Cluny, who then set 2 November as a day of intercession on the part of his community for all the souls in purgatory.

OK... i am marking this down in my 2009 diary so i will remember to go back next year... aaah!!!