January Blues.

January is a month often associated with lonliness and depression which can be attributed to coming down from a high of Christmas festivities.

The glitz and tinsel of Christmas has been removed, friends and family have gone back to their normal routine and homes, credit card bills start arriving through the post, the general good cheer of Christmmas has well and trully disappeared.

January is for most a time of new beginnings, new year resolutions and the setting of new goals. In a sense, January represents the tenacity of the human spirit; the ability to turn from despair to positive thinking. The "I really over did it at Chistmass" syndrome is now replaced with the positive aspiration to "loose weight", "go off alcohol", "take up a new hobby". For all of us January is a positive month of decision making, setting new targets and looking forward.

The significance of a candle at Christmas.

Many countries and companies are credited with contributing their cultural tradititions to the international celebration of Christmas, Sweeden brought us the Christmas tree, Coca-Cola brought us Santa's colours "red & white"and Ireland is attributed with bringing it's tradition of a candle light in the window on Christmas Eve to guide people on their way to Church to celebrate midnight mass.

Ireland's President, Mary Robbinson, on taking up office fullfilled a promise to the Irish Diaspora by having a candle light in the front window of her offical residence to symbolise the cherished memory of the Irish who had to leave Ireland to live abroad.

We at http://www.inlovingmemoryireland.com/ have included this Irish tradition on our online memorial site where visitors can light a virtual candle of rememberance on a person's memorial page.

"Candle light burning bright
Remind us of the spiritual light
That shines so brilliantly from within
Through thoughts and acts of pure lovin'."

The importance of November.

November is universally an important month for celebrating the memory of our departed loved ones.

The Mexican and South American cultures place great emphasis on celebrating the day of the dead "El Diá de los Muertos"by bringing food and candy skulls to their graves. In many towns great processions are organised, where photos and memorabilia of the dead are brought through the streets amid noise of drums and chants. Nowhere has this tradition been more adapted than in San Francisco where its cosmopolitan culture has embraced the tradition with great fervour in the Mission District.

The Catholic tradition also places much emphasis on November as a special month of remembrance with its belief that the Church is made up of 3 essential components, the church of the living, the church of the saints and the church of the dead. They set aside November the 1st as all saints day and November the 2nd as all souls day. They believe prayer is the most important bonding between these three component parts of the church.

In this month of November, remember your dead with a thought or prayer.

The true meaning of Halloween in the Celtic Calendar.

As we move into the first day of November 2009 It is important for us to wish you all a very happy Celtic New Year.

Halloween traces it origins to the ancient Celtic feast of Samhain, meaning literally, the end of summer, the "lighter half" of the year, and the beginning of the "darker half". Oiche Shamhna was considered a very holy time, when the boundaries between our world and the other world were broken, and the dead could return to the places where they had lived. Many rituals of Oiche Shamhna involved providing hospitality for dead ancestors. The Celts put out food and drink for the dead with great ceremony, and left their windows, doors, and gates unlocked to give the dead free passage into their homes. Bobbing for apples, another traditional Samhain pastime, was a reference to the Celtic Emhain Abhlach, "Paradise of Apples," where the dead, having eaten of the sacred fruit, enjoyed a happy immortality.

Spirits entered our world on the eve of November, but not all of them were friendly. The images of spirit-guardians were carved onto turnips which were then set at the front of doors to keep out unwelcome spirits. The Gaelic custom of wearing costumes and masks, was an attempt to confuse the evil spirits. With the advent of Christianity, Samhain was changed to Hallowmas, or All Saints' Day, to commemorate the souls of the blessed dead who had been canonized that year, so the night before became popularly known as Halloween.All Hallows Eve, or November 2nd, became All Souls Day, when prayers were to be offered to the souls of all who had departed this world and those who were waiting in Purgatory for entry into Heaven. Throughout the centuries, Celtic pagan beliefs were integrated with Christian beliefs and celebrated from Oct 31st through to November 5th.

We hope you celebrated in style with family and friends the magic of dressing up as ghouls, ghosts and witches as you took out your young ones to trick and treat around your neighbour's and friend's doors.

It is therefore important for us always to remember our departed loved ones at this time of year as they continue their journey into eternity and we continue ours here on planet earth.

welcome.

Welcome to the in loving memory blog; Ireland's first online memorial website. We endavour to provide a forum to discuss all things memorial and to provide you with an online community of support in your quest to keep the memory of your loved ones preserved and respected.

www.inlovingmemory.ie is our official website which this blog is assigned to. We also provide on our home page a bereavement support section where Alyson Banks, who is currently studying for her Msc in palliative care in TCD and St. Francis Hospice Dublin, gives her insights and advice on a range of issues that come up for people when they go through the bereavement process.