sample of ancestor days

mourning and celebrating

The Humanists observe their Ancestor Days with a unique amalgam of mourning and celebration.   Their approach to these holidays is like the traditional Irish wake that would occur when someone passed away.   In a wake, while there would be sadness for the death of the loved one, the overriding mood would be one of joy, celebrating and remembering everything about the deceased person.  

Similarly, the Humanists observe these historical holidays with a combination of sadness for the passing of the great civilizations, and a celebration of the ancient cultures that had once been so strong and vibrant.  

 Of all the holidays, none is more intense a combination of mourning and celebration than Columbus Day, observed along with the rest of the United States on the second Monday in October.   Columbus Day is mourned for a double tragedy: the devastation of the American Indians that took place over the centuries, and the terrible nuclear massacre of over one hundred thousand citizens of Columbus, Ohio, in the twenty-first century by the Citizens Seeking Global Justice.  

At the same time, there is a celebration of the great cultures of the Indian tribes of North America, along with an acknowledgement of the benefits caused by the trillion dollars of damages paid out to the developing world as a result of the CARGI judgment following the Columbus nuclear explosion.  

This is a day, above all, that ponders the dialectic between good and evil, and the mysteries of how these powerful forces play themselves out against each other.

community together

Each of these Ancestor Days is a full day event, bringing the whole community together in a series of gatherings.   It's a day everyone looks forward to, involving months of preparation by the group that "hosts" the day.   The "host" group is comprised of those people in the community who speak the ancient languages that are part of the culture being celebrated.  

Columbus Day, for example, is hosted by all of those in Tuckers Corner who speak any of the languages of the North American Indians.   August 1, Slavery Abolition Day, is hosted by those who speak any of the ancient African languages.   And so on.  

The morning is spent in solemn prayer, lasting a couple of hours, to the spirits of the dead.   The prayer is led by the "host" group, and is conducted in the ancient languages of the dead along with the English translation.   It is based on the spiritual texts and chants of the ancient cultures, but each year the exact prayers are written differently, reflecting the "host" group's own ideas and thoughts.

The whole community attends these prayer meetings in the Great Hall of the Ancestors, which was built in the early days of Tuckers Corner to accommodate thousands of Humanists in one place.