There is a tempest in a teacup that is now brewing in our small corner of the world.
My neighbors were recently having a spirited discussion about the activity to be held in our area come October 31, eve of Todos los Santos (All Saints Day).
One of the lead organizers opened the meeting by pushing for the idea of a Halloween ‘Trick or Treat’ in which kids in costumes would go from house to house, accompanied by their parents of course, to receive candies or cookies, just like in American residential neighborhoods. It was approved overwhelmingly by viva voce.
But then from out of left field, a respected layman minister in our chapel strongly proposed the banning of costumes portraying demonic characters such as witches, devils, zombies, monsters and the like. He furthermore recommended wearing white costumes to project a saintly look because it was the eve of All Saints Day.
Immediately a young-looking mother objected and said it would dampen the spirit of the whole affair. Many agreed.
Finally, a compromise was reached on what character costumes would be OK: popular superheroes, animation movie characters? Batman, Superman, Avengers, Little Red Riding Hood, Suicide Squad, Spiderman, Hulk, Frozen, Ninja Turtles. Saintly characters also allowed. Approved without objection.
As I quietly watched from the back row, one of my favorite sayings came to mind: ‘This sh-t would be really interesting if we weren’t in the middle of it.’
I was seething inside because what my neighbors were doing was an anomaly or a travesty, which the dictionary defines as ‘a false, absurd, or distorted representation of something.’
I almost wanted to scream: does anyone here know what ‘halloween’ originally means? Are we in America? How could I tell them this is a case of two cultural traditions or practices that are foreign to each other being mishmashed without awareness and understanding.
Let me explain, dear reader. As in everything, context first.
Halloween is a Western tradition that traces its beginnings to the time of the Celts the ancient forebears of the Irish and English. On the night of October 31, they celebrated ‘Samhain,’ when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth at that time because the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.
Over time, this Celtic tradition transitioned to a Christian feast and called it All Hallows’ Day or Eve. Later it was shortened to Halloween. Hallow is the old term for holy or saintly person. Robert Burns the Scottish poet, who wrote a widely popular poem entitled ‘Halloween’ said this time of year was ‘thought to be a night when witches, devils, and other mischief-making beings are all abroad on their baneful midnight errands.’ This is probably how Halloween got its scary associations.
On the other hand, our own ‘Todos Los Santos’ is an old tradition that has spiritual roots. This is why our lay minister neighbor had a point when he initially broached a more saintly theme for our activity.
Like the Halloween of the Celts, our observance of ‘Todos Los Santos’ is also about the souls of the dead, and we also have customs and rituals that start on the eve of October 31 and continues until November 2.
But the similarity should end there. Our ‘Todos Los Santos’ focuses more on honoring our dearly departed ones.
The key word here is honor. That’s why we natives call it ‘undas,’ which can be traced back to the Spanish verb honrar, meaning ‘to honor.’ Its second-person singular form is honras or honors, which has then evolved over the years into the more colloquial ondas and then undas. In my hometown in Pampanga, we call it ‘daun’ which someone pointed out is an anagram of undas.
Honoring our dead relatives is the reason why we go home to join the whole family to the cemetery to clean the tombs of our departed loved ones and decorate them with flowers and candles.
Now going to ‘trick or treat,’ my neighbors including many young Filipino parents today, probably are not aware that our ancient forebears already had a version of this custom many centuries before we got to know the Halloween traditions from the Americans.
Our pre-Christian folks practiced a custom called ‘pangangaluluwa’ derived from the Tagalog word ‘kaluluwa,’ meaning soul. It consisted of groups of adults representing lost souls who went around to visit houses and the people living in them had to sing songs for the lost souls. They were also expected to offer ‘kakanin’ (rice cakes).
If the group of souls were ignored or sent away without receiving anything, they would play tricks on the household, like running away with their slippers, chicken, eggs, or snatching and hiding their clothes left hanging outside to dry. These mischiefs and pranks were tolerated and forgiven only during this time of the year.
Later when the Spanish colonizers came, this practice was cloaked in Catholic beliefs. The groups would represent not lost souls but souls stuck in purgatory and the reason why they go from house to house was to plead for alms and prayers to help them out of Purgatory and ascend to heaven by way of songs. In other rural areas of the Philippines, it is the children who go from house to house.
The songs had elegant lyrics and were sung more jauntily as opposed to the Holy Week ‘pabasa.’ Here’s one song sample: Kaluluwa’y dumaratal/ Sa tapat ng durungawan/ Kampanilya’y tinatangtang/Ginigising ang may bahay/May bahay na natutulog/Walang imik, walang kislot/ Kung kami po’y lilimusan/Pakidalian po lamang/At baka pagsarhan/Ng pinto ng kalangitan/ Tao po!
In some parts of the Philippines such as Batangas, Quezon, Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan and other provinces, the custom of rice cakes as ‘atang’ or offering is practiced differently that is reminiscent of Chinese and Japanese way of honoring their ancestors. Families bring ‘suman’ or ‘biko’ and place them on house altars and tombs. Do I hear echoes of ‘hungry ghosts’?
If we have these old-time folk traditions, why are we now so eager to shed them off and import foreign customs for these occasions? Are we not supposed to be the bearers of our unique cultural legacies? Personally, ‘Halloween’ and ‘Trick or Treat’ are so foreign to my native sensibility. I feel the same way with Easter egg hunt or the Easter bunny. As we say, ‘hindi gamay.’
If we need to be creative with these traditions to make it more exciting for the young people, at least ensure that the added element is organic to our age-old customs and practices. They are part of our wealth of ethnic traditions and our cultural genome. They are the essential elements of our Filipino-ness.
I’m afraid that our values and beliefs have grown so diluted over time that our way of life and our Filipino identity have become alien to the young generation. Let’s not be tricked or treated further into embracing foreign traditions and customs just to add more fun to the occasion.
To borrow the spirit of Milan Kundera, the struggle of our people against the force of promiscuous acculturation is the struggle of memory against forgetting.
Nick Tayag, now in his mid-70s, is a long-retired advertising creative director. His column is his platform for sharing the little distilled wisdom he’s accumulated through the years. He hopes to inspire his fellow seniors to lead a more lively, productive, reflective and meaningful life in the last chapter of their individual life stories.