Candles for the dead, flowers for the living

The Philippines, being the only predominantly Catholic country in Asia, embraces the century-old tradition, which is generally practiced in all Spanish-colonized nations, like those in South America. But ours is a unique mixture of a solemn observance of rituals of reverence, prayers, and requiem masses, combined with celebrations of fun, foods, drinks, costumes, family reunions, and parties.

Families usually gather around the tombs, mausoleums and burial sites of their loved ones and make it a family affair. They set up tents, place chairs and tables around the graves, lay blankets down and pray, have animated and intimate conversations recalling the memory of their departed loved ones, and eat together, drink, and even sleep and spend the night inside the cemetery. They purchase or bring food, and make a day out of remembering their loved ones. There are even those who play mahjong and card games while drinking liquor but the local government units are closely watching and regulating these activities.

For the dead, the Filipinos generally light many candles. For the living, they show off by putting up expensive bouquets and arrangements of flowers. The celebrations of All Saints’ Day every November 1 and All Souls’ Day every November 2 are among the Filipinos annually-awaited events. Work is suspended, offices and factories are closed. People go home to the provinces to pay their respect to their dead parents, siblings, children, and other relatives. These two celebrations do cause a big impact on the economy as people tend to spend money, move around and perk up the businesses of transport, food, services, and logistics.

Research shows that All Saints’ Day is a religious feast in all Catholic countries mostly in former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in South America. In the Roman Catholic calendar, it falls on the 1st of November. Since Latin America has been one of the most Catholic regions since the conquest, that’s when they celebrate it too. Technically speaking, it is a three-day celebration: All Hallow’s Eve falls on October 31st, All Saints’ on the November 1st, and All Souls’ on November 2nd. In English, members of Western churches refer to these three celebrations as “Allhallowtide.” For brevity’s sake, we’ll call them All Saints’, or Todos Santos in Spanish. The Americans call it Halloween and the Filipinos in Luzon call it Undas. Here, in Cebu, we refer to it as "Kalag-kalag".

Like Christmas, the two-day celebrations bring family and close friends together and allow for opportunities to renew blood and other bonds of relationships. Families make sure that there are special foods for family members who are coming home and for visitors who come and join the fun of reunions and reconciliations. Airports and bus terminals are full of people, food sales are up and traffic problems become more complicated. The sales of candles and flowers are brisk and small-scale industries earn more money these two days, even as they also tend to spend more. Even the government should be collecting more taxes including the local government units. Churches too and parishes expect more revenue from parishioners who pay for requiem masses in honor of their dearly departed.

Thus, what we should guard against is the human tendency to eat, drink, and spend too much while forgetting the true purpose for All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. These two days should focus more on the spiritual and religious aspects, rather than the commercial and even physical and material indulgences.