Jordan wanted to celebrate The Day of the Dead this year as a way to connect with her grandpa.
Have you ever seen the movie Coco? It’s one of Jordan’s favorites and the other day in her music class the teacher wasn’t feeling too well and so he put Coco on for the students to watch and while he was getting it set up he asked the class if they knew what holiday was being celebrated in the movie. Jordan was ALL EXCITED to tell me that she was the ONLY one in her class who knew the answer - not Halloween or Christmas or Thanksgiving or Easter, but The Day of the Dead.
And so we’ve been talking about The Day of the Dead in the Siepert house along with the Celtic Liminal Days (check out Alexander John Shaia for more on this), Samhain, All Saints Day ... I'm no expert, though, and so how on earth do you explain this stuff to a 1st grader? Especially when I (her dad) was told throughout high school and college and seminary and a lifetime in church that this sort of stuff is evil and demonic and New Age-y and all sorts of other things that will put you on the highway to hell.
Sigh.
Jordan’s grandpa passed away in March and over the last 8 months her little heart has been exploding with questions about life and death and what happens when we close our eyes for the last time.
Where do we go?
How do we get there?
Is this all there is?
Phew.
Big questions for a 6 year old and big questions for a 41 year old, right? And so rather than simply tell her what I think (and make her feel she needs to think/believe it too), I’ve been trying to be intentional with asking her what SHE thinks.
“Good questions, peanut. Great questions. Hm. What do YOU think happens?”
She shared some of her ideas, but then really wanted to know my thoughts and so I told her that lots of people believe lots of different things.
(**NOTE: these conversations have taken place over the course of the last 8 months and so I’m sharing bits and pieces, this didn’t all happen in one sitting.)
That’s important right? I want her to know that there isn’t just ONE way to think and ONE way to believe about ANY of this stuff because