Filipinos always look forward to the start of November. It is the time of the year when, apart from Christmas and New Year, they can meet and be with their families for yet another happy reunion.
This is the time of the year, too, that there are more living than the dead in cemeteries throughout the country. The living gather where their dearly departed are, they reminisce and remember the happy and sad moments together.
Whether the dearly beloved are buried near or far away from the homes of the living members of the families, expect the long queue at terminals of those eager to be home with their dead and their liing families, relatives on these first two days of November!
Some may have gone earlier or some may also have decided to visit their dead after November 1 and 2 to avoid the traffic, the throng, and travel hassle.
Most, however, already consider these inconveniences as normal and part of the November commemoration for the dead.
While All Souls’ Day is officially celebrated on November 2, most Filipinos start celebrating their departed a day or days earlier often forgetting or not giving the same attention to the saints of the Church whose celebration and commemoration fall on November 1.
Students look forward to at least two days of no classes, workers paid for these days even if they do not report to work are content, vendors and businesses thrive where there are huge crowds.
Flowers and candles will be sold out, like most food items and drinks within and outside cemeteries.
Traffic enforcers, peace and order teams will be kept very busy from day to night. Those pretending to be priests who sell their blessings for a fee are sure to be among those in cemeteries especially on November 1.
Prior public announcements have been repeatedly issued reminding the crowds to properly manage their waste and not dirty or leave the cemeteries as instant, mini-dumpsites.
Requests to tone down boisterous activities like playing loud music and karaoke inside cemeteries have also been made.
Will the public listen to these or like previous Undas, will waste and noise pollution once again break and disturb the silence of the dead in their abode? Will there be better crowd management during these two days inside and outside cemeteries and memorial parks and gardens?
Elsewhere in malls and certain private villages, there will be those celebrating Halloween.
While Halloween derives from All Hallows’ Eve, meaning the evening before All Hallows’ (All Saints’) Day, (hallow meaning holy), Halloween has since evolved, away from a religious to a more secular meaning and practice of wearing costumes and masks of scary characters or superheroes and more, with children playing ‘trick or treat’ in several parts of the world.
The Church has been advising believers to celebrate saints and angels rather than depict forces of darkness, rather than wear masks and costumes of ‘horrors, of horrifying images!’
It is interesting to observe how various societies and cultures show their respect for their departed loved ones.
Filipinos mix local with foreign, religious with secular influences while remembering their departed loved ones.
When the crowds are gone, the cemeteries restored to the dead, silence back after the boisterous revelry and celebration, then reality steps in.
Hopefully, the cemeteries will not be one dirty, wide receptacle of the waste and garbage left by the living. Hopefully, peace and order reigned throughout the abode of the dead, no one hurt or harmed, no property vandalized or disrespected.
Sadly, certain cemeteries have become the homes of a number of marginalized and poor. When the Undas visitors will have left, these poor will reclaim their ‘higaang marmol –their marbled beds and homes’ until next year’s November 1 and 2.