Graveyard lit up as departed souls receive visitors

Christians throng Gora Qabristan to remember the dead.

KARACHI: Hundreds of graves at the Christian Cemetery or Gora Qabristan were lit up with small candles and oil lamps as the Christians, both Catholics and Protestants, of the city celebrated their annual World Souls’ Day on Tuesday.

The cloying frangrance of burning incence and roses, with graves freshly watered, lighted and decorated with new wooden crosses marked the ritual.  All Souls’ Day is marked on November 2 (or the 3rd if the 2nd is a Sunday), directly following All Saints’ Day, and is an opportunity for Roman Catholics and Anglo-Catholic churches to commemorate the faithful departed. They remember and pray for the souls of people who are in Purgatory - the place (or state) in which those who have died atone for their less grave sins before being granted the vision of God in Heaven (called Beatific vision). It is similar to that of the Muslim’s Shab-e-Baraat. Visitors start thronging the graves from 6 am in the morning and keep on visiting till 9pm in the night.

Hundreds of Christians, including the women and children, flock to the graves of their loved ones and pray kneeling at the graves with tears in their eyes for the salvation of their souls.

Their offerings are pretty much the same - rose petals, joss-sticks, rose garlands for the tomb stones, candles and oil lamps with a little cultural variation, along with crosses and in some instances hearths.

On the day, the relatives of the dead not only pay homage to the graves but also offer ‘niyaz’ in their names, some even bringing it to the graveyard to distribute among the visitors. At the cemetery there were people distributing jalebis, biryani and other rice dishes.

Twelve-year-old Sehar tagged along with her mother to visit the grave of her brother who died at the age of 30. “It’s the time to remember him and his memories,” she said sadly. These women are an exception as they frequently visit the graveyard even though most women in their family do not.

An elderly Parveen explained that she came to visit her mother-in-law’s grave for “self satisfaction”. “I still love my saas [mother-in-law] and I used to respect her when she was alive,” she said.

Parveen and her husband spent three hours by the grave but not before cleaning their house and preparing a nice meal as they believed that the soul of the dead also visits the family’s house on this day.

On the other hand, Edna believes otherwise. She cannot imagine celebrating the day as she is still transfixed with the memory and pain at the loss of her youngest daughter, who died in 1984 when she was just six months old.

A large number of Christians visit Gora Qabristan, located near Kala Pul, even though they have cemeteries at Drigh Road and in Liaquatabad as well. Robson, who came to visit his parent’s grave, explained that Gora Qabristan is the oldest one in the city. “Even if the new generation of Christians may not be buried here, almost all families in the city have some old relative here,” he said. For him, All Souls’ Day is an occasion to remember the dead right before Christmas.

Even after most people left for their homes, Majid Niamet kept sitting besides the grave of his elder brother Khurram who died at the age of 28. Niamet worked very hard to make a “pakki qabar” with marble decorations for his brother.

Outside the graveyard, a Muslim vendor, Muhammad Kashif, who was selling garlands and packets of rose petals, said that hundreds of people had came to the graveyard since morning. He made Rs15,000 and even though this is not his profession, he comes to Gora Qabristan every year. Kashif’s business has attracted five other vendors who managed to sell several hundred kilogrammes of petals in just one day.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2010.