It is well that at least once a year we the living should pause from our labors to pay homage to the dead. By practice, we do that tomorrow, All Saint's Day, although liturgically All Souls' Day falls on Friday.

We do not visit the dead only to spruce up their lonely graves. Nor do we go there merely to stay or to linger for a while to let our thoughts drift fondly back to the day when they whom we loved and lost once shared our sorrows and joys.

Going there and, for a moment, feeling close to them once more should also make us come face to face with the reality that someday we too shall join them. The thought is a morbid one, we must admit, but is there any other choice?

Perhaps, too, paying homage to the dead should afford us time to take stock of what we are while alive. And while pondering hard, somehow these questions, cropping up from the back of our minds, will beg for an answer.

By the manner we live, will we deserve the memory, let alone the love, of those we shall leave behind?

This mad rush, this hectic pace, which have become our way of life, where will these lead us to?

This lust for power, this inordinate love for self, this greed for wealth, what are all these really for?

Stand silent and alone before an ornate tomb or a lowly grave. Think. The answer is there.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween is usually celebrated on October 31st, on the eve of All Saints' Day.

Different customs have continued in practice while by ancient traditions some believe that during this one evening, evil spirits are free for a time to do whatever mischief they please. Actually, on this day, witches do not really ride aboard on their broomsticks and ghosts do not actually make people shiver, but it is fun for children to pretend that they do.

Halloween is related to an old festival of the Romans when they used to hold a big feast every first day of November, in honor of the goddess of fruit trees known as Pomona.

Tradition was observed through the centuries that the observance was also prevalent in England where the priests of ancient Britain, known as druids, used to hold an autumn festival during which ghosts and the dead were believed to come back and roam around the earth to visit their friends and play pranks on the living.

While waiting for their coming, people used to build big bonfires during the night to scare away the evil spirits and witches.

Later, the Christians observed another feast during the same night to take the place of a pagan feast. Much later the two feasts were merged into one grand universal celebration on October 31 known as Halloween.

In the United States, Halloween is one of the greatest occasions for fun. They carve the famous Jack-o-Lantern to adorn their homes and put up decorations complete with costumes to make the occasion truly lively. Children usually put up a get together party where the Halloween atmosphere truly prevails.

The children usually select a big orange pumpkin of the size and shape that would yield the greatest fun. One can make the pumpkin Jack-o-Lantern laughing, gloomy, or scary by choosing different patterns.

As the tradition evolved through the years, the celebration is enlivened as great fun is poked on people other than the celebrants themselves.

In the Philippines, Halloween fun is achieved by wearing scary costumes with horrible-looking masks. It is part of the fun that some people actually do not need masks to scare people.