Day of Remembrance | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Day of Remembrance | Previous Challenge Entry
By Tim Liwanag
04/14/05
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES

A while ago, I searched the web on the meaning of anniversary and found out one uncomplicated answer. It was another simple noun: day of remembrance. But when I clicked on its synonym and its highlighted word “day,” it became more evocative as in a day of observance or a day of purpose. I stared at the definition curiously and thought, “Is there such a thing as an unmemorable day?”

For sure, an anniversary is a special and memorable occasion with anticipated practices and festive activities. If extended, the event is more appropriately called customary.

I considered the intriguing issue concerning special days in the last twenty years. Have anyone ever had an unmemorable day?

Of course, all of us could forget or disregard common experiences and daily affairs, in a normal time or in a typical circumstance. A particular date of a birthday, wedding, and death can be forgotten momentarily as well but not the day itself. These are the kind of days we’d always try to keep in mind.

These are, naturally, days of remembrance – days that are honored from time to time, under such titles as Natal Day, Nuptial, and Memorial. Although these types of anniversaries are often acknowledged as elemental, fixed, and genuinely important, their occurrences are sometimes altered. People in some cultures even rewrote their family history by changing birthdays and dates of deaths to complement their variable beliefs and outlandish practices.

Some anniversary celebrations were, plainly, inconsistent too. A number of these occasions were at times awkwardly observed.

A lot of contemporary holidays have emerged from yearly commemorations after being preferred and recognized along the way. The birth of Jesus Christ for instance is now more of a traditional worldwide celebration known as Christmas wherein families get together to enjoy the bright season with merrymaking, caroling and gift-giving. What started out as a sacred day of reconciliation has transformed into a legal holiday that families of different convictions and religious affiliations can participate in.

Many anniversaries have been intentionally altered for one reason or another, often to draw attention to or develop the meaning of a definite calendar day. The changes increasingly become customary – a predictable occasion for a modern lifestyle. As it turns out, an anniversary is both changeable and ordinary. It happens once in a year just to harmonize the needs of a scheduled day. This day of remembrance will obviously come as expected to those who have been changing deliberately memorable events all their lives.

An unforgettable day like an anniversary should epitomize a truthful incidence. If meaning is one of anniversary’s significant characteristics, then memories of loved ones must be preserved conscientiously yet must remain openly and inwardly alive more than once in an ever-changing year.

PREVIOUS ENTRY | NEXT ENTRY
SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY FOR THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE

The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.

If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be right now. CLICK HERE

JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.