Are you Celebrating All-Souls Day?
The Day of The Dead?
October, 2015
According
to the regions largest baking supplies company more and more locals are
baking cakes and cup-cakes and that’s a fact!
Have you ever thought of baking a Memorial Cake or cup-cakes for All Souls Day? This is something you can do at home for your family in celebration of
the life of a loved one who has passed.
Many
bereaved of all religions now choose this day to visit the graves of loved ones
and Respect Natural Woodland Green Burial Parks will be open to receive families
on Sunday 2nd November 2014.
The cakes shown below were made by
Pauline Berry who is a cake specialist on the Isle of Axholme for Respect Green Burial Park customers
Often Soul cakes are
traditionally made and have the consistency of a bun similar to the Hot Cross
Bun but without the cross or the currents added.
Cakes are always a welcome comfort food as with the beautiful Heart & Souls
cake
seen here with Lincolnshire Alzheimer’s Society Manager Lisa Hickman
The
owner Tamatha Troop of Lincolnshire’s One Stop Cake Shop at Lea Rd Station, Gainsborough explained that cakes are now becoming more popular again rather than cup-cakes
due to the popularity of the TV Bake -off programme
BIG thank you to Nancy Birtwhistle for choosing this years winner
The scull image is with the kind permission of http://dyingmatters.org/page/day-dead-2013
for promoting people to openly talk about death & dying,
Original source of the background editorial below
What do people do?
Some churches, including the Catholic Church, hold special services with
music and prayers focused on All Souls’ Day on or around November 2 each year.
It is a time for some Christians, including those who attend these special All
Souls’ Day services, to remember and pray for deceased family members and
friends. Some people visit the graves of dead family or friends on All Souls’
Day. All Souls’ Day is closely associated with All Saints’ Day (November 1), as
both are known collectively as Hallowtide.
Background
All Souls’ Day was first instituted at the monastery in Cluny in 993 CE
and quickly spread throughout the Christian world. People held festivals for
the dead long before Christianity. It was Saint Odilo, the abbot of Cluny in
France, who in the 10th century, proposed that the day after All Saints’ Day be
set aside to honour the departed, particularly those whose souls were still in
purgatory.
It was historically customary for poor Christians to offer prayers for
the dead in return for money or food (soul cakes) from their wealthier
neighbours. During the 19th and 20th centuries children would go “souling” in a
similar fashion to carol singing, in which they would ask for alms or soul
cakes. There was also a superstition that All Souls' night was a time for the
dead revisited their homes. Therefore some people would leave lit candles
outside their homes to help to guide the deceased souls. Meals and wine were
also left as refreshments.
Symbols
A soul cake is like a hot cross bun but without the currants or the
cross on top.
