ORANGE : A Day Many Remember Loved Ones

Dinh Tran flew from Michigan early Monday morning to visit his brother’s grave site here.

The 59-year-old man spent hours at the Holy Sepulcher Cemetery on All Saints’ Day, remembering his childhood experiences with his brother, Ngong Thi Tran.

“Today and tomorrow--All Souls’ Day--is when you remember your relatives and ancestors and pray for them,” Tran said.

“I’m staying here all day because I have a lot to remember about my only brother,” Tran said, his eyes glistening. “He always did everything for me.”

Like Tran, hundreds of people visited their deceased relatives’ and friends’ graves throughout Orange County on Monday. More are expected to crowd cemeteries as they celebrate All Souls’ Day today, a Catholic tradition.

Also known as Dia de Los Muertos (Spanish for Day of the Dead) among Latinos, Nov. 2 is recognized as family members pray that they will one day join their deceased loved ones in everlasting life.

Mary Jane Garcia, 47, of Santa Ana cleaned the headstones of her grandmother and great-grandmother as her 5-year-old grandson, Nicholas Soltero, watched.

“Just because they died doesn’t mean they’re not living,” Garcia explained to her grandson. “They live in our hearts.”

Lucille Serrano, 43, of Santa Ana agreed.

She was at the cemetery placing flowers at the graves of her husband, father, grandparents, great-grandmother, uncle and two nephews.

“Mostly everybody’s here,” she said, weeping. “I came here today so I could be close to them. I talk to them. I told my husband I wished he was with me. . . . It makes you feel good when you visit your relatives who left before you.”

About 100 feet away, Antonio Rodriguez of Anaheim paid his wife a visit.

“There’s my beauty,” the 70-year-old man said in Spanish, pointing to the picture of his wife, Virginia, on her headstone.

“Coming here is comforting, and Dia De Los Muertos is a tradition that, I think, will never die because it gives us hope,” he said.

Msgr. Jaime Soto, vicar for the Hispanic Community of the Diocese of Orange, said the two-day celebration is intended to strengthen faith in God while commemorating the dead.

“It’s very important for people to remember their loved ones,” he said. “The love for those who have died is not some sad illusion. It’s something real. . . . These are days for people of faith to celebrate and believe in their whole hearts that death does not separate you, for the church, living and dead, joins together to be one people--one in the face of life’s adversities.”

The Day of the Dead “is a nice tradition,” said Alexandra Roman, 24, of Orange. “It helps you remember that your loved ones need to be remembered and prayed for just like everyone else.”

Churches throughout the county will be performing Masses today, including one at the Holy Sepulcher Cemetery at 9 a.m.