Concealed, secret, hidden, mysterious

Today is Occult Day on the calendar.  I know, I know....you'd think it would have been on Halloween. Concealed, secret, hidden, mysterious...These are all words to describe the occult.  Here, where I live in El Paso, the Day of the Dead is celebrated as a way of respecting people we love who have passed away. But it is no longer celebrated solely on November 1 & 2 (All Saints Day & All Soul's Day).  Probably because of commercialization of the "holiday", the decorations are often seen throughout the year.
This makes me very happy because I love the liveliness of the colors, designs and topics.  Celebrating death makes much more sense to me than fearing it. After all, if I really have faith in my spiritual beliefs, then there is nothing to fear, right? Buddhist philosophy encourages meditation on death, preparing one's spirit for one's  eventual death.  My personal spiritual beliefs are eclectic and include a foundation of Catholic religion and a growing curiosity about Buddhist philosophy. So I have the Catholic faith that there is a heaven, God deciding if I've been a good person and a better place to go when I die. And I believe the Buddhist teachings that heaven and the ability to achieve residence in heaven is within me. When death has touched my life, I have seen it as more of a reason to be grateful for the time spent with the loved one, a reason to celebrate them being out of pain and on their journey finding their way to heaven.

And for fun, to join in the wonderful weirdness of celebrating death:  my drawings of Day of the Dead sugar skulls.