On this day Catholics honor all those who have entered heaven.

It's considered a liminal time, when the veil between life and death grows thin.

The culture of Mexico is not alone in its remembrance of death, but it is unique in how, more often than not, these commemorations are more festive than somber.

This year, in our church's All Saints celebration, I lit a candle to my birth parents Ken and Sophia, to birth grandparents Clinton and Jessie, to Katie and John, my saints I'll never meet, but whose genes are the weft and warp in the tapestry that is me.