I have always believed that death does not end a relationship (mentioned in “I Never Sang for My Father”) and that the honoring of our dead is important for our own quality of living. Death not only does not end a relationship, but as I said yesterday, we must periodically learn to “dance with it.” Am I scared of dying? Yes, I am, but I no longer hide from it as I once did. Day of the Dead has that childish, fun quality of spoofing death, teasing it, to take the fear out of it. All my extremely conservative Dutch relatives are probably squirming in their graves right now protesting their inclusion in a custom they probably would find pagan, but I’d rather think they are happy to be remembered this week.

–Fran Pullara, Sacred Ordinary: Day of the Dead is About Life