Well, actually, in the Philippines, Halloween isn't celebrated. ((Psych!!)) Something my mother would gladly embrace as she always disliked Halloween... the costumes, all the candy, the intense sugar highs and sugar crashes of 8 children arguing over candy and costumes. But I think it was the origins of the holiday my mother most disliked, and the fact that witches, ghosts and goblins are celebrated when, in actuality, our faith does not believe in any of it. It is funny that in stores here I saw pumpkin pails and decorations for Halloween being sold, but I think that is just the naughty influence of America on the unassuming enterprises of the Philippines. What is celebrated here, quite beautifully and universally is All Saints Day and All Souls Day.
Again, I turn to my youth for references... hope you don't mind. On Halloween while I was in elementary school at St. Aloysius Gonzaga School in Buffalo, we would dress up as saints and go to mass at 7pm for the All Saints Day mass. I remember dressing up in long dresses and veils as one saint or another and participating in the procession as the congregation sang out "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In." After the mass there was a social in the cafeteria, but you had to pass through the Haunted Hallway before getting your treats in the cafeteria. I think it was a way to combine the two celebrations, but thinking about it now, it is pretty funny to think of werewolves and witches jumping out at the little St. Francis' and St. Teresa's!! Funny and a little deranged!!! However, I don't remember any observances for All Souls Day. Having participated in my first real celebration of these two great memorial observances that the Church designates for our beloved dead, I think the Philippines got this one right on the money!!
I've been hearing stories of these two days for a while now. People talking about what they are going to do, or have done in the past, on these two days. I just listened with a bit of unbelief and a great desire to experience it myself. On All Saints and All Souls Days, the people of the Philippines travel to where their families are buried and visit the gravesites. If you have family/friends buried in multiple cemeteries, you do a lot of traveling on these two days. Families bring tents, as it is usually raining by November, food, chairs, drinks, candles, prayer books and can spend all day together at the cemetery praying, eating, remembering... and it can last well into the night. In fact I have heard of people staying overnight in the cemeteries together. Masses are celebrated there as well. I even saw on the news that the bus stations have increased security because of the great number of people traveling over the next few days.
Well, it is just as I was told it would be. We went to mass on Sunday morning to the Cathedral, then we went to a cemetery in Borongan where Sister Clarissa has some family members buried. Along the roadside across from the cemetery were temporary shops set up especially for these two days. There you could buy candles, flowers, food, drinks and more and children were selling candles as we entered the cemetery. Sister Clarissa bought some and we put them alongside the graves of her family. Yesterday, Benedict (one of the scholars) and I made 7 flower arrangements, so we brought two of them with us to leave with the lighted candles. Then we prayed for the souls of the Sister Clarissa's family. All around us were people surrounding the graves of their families and praying, talking and eating. There is also a little place where you can light a candle for your family members whose graves are far away. Sister was so thoughtful to give me a candle to light, which I especially lit for the deceased members of the Noonan and Burkard families.
Later in the afternoon, we visited the graves of Sister Minerva's parents. This cemetery was one in which the caskets are encased in cement and left above ground. It is very different to see these structures, knowing that encased inside them are the remains of the dead. Many of them have a roof on top of them, but they are not too high, so you have to watch your head as you are moving along in the crowded maze of tombs. It sounds weird, but maze is the proper word for how we traveled through the cemetery. Walking in-between and around graves in the growing darkness sounds a little spooky, but in reality, it was quite lovely with the soft glow of candles left on the graves by loved ones and the fresh scent of flowers which permeated the night air. It was in this atmosphere that mass was said and it reminded me of masses said in the early church and in other times in our history where it was illegal to participate in a Catholic mass, so they were said in the catacombs in secret. Sister Minerva and I sat on her grandparent's grave as mass was said, and I couldn't help but feel a little funny about sitting there, although many people were laying or sitting on the graves of their families as well. After mass, we said prayers at the grave of Sister Minerva's parents and she told me a little about them. It was a sweet moment.
The next day, All Soul's Day, we began the day at the cemetery where Sister Clarissa's mother is buried. That cemetery was similar to the one we visited the night before, except it seemed more crowded by graves. Slinking through tight spaces, I saw so many people at the graves of their loved ones, praying and sharing stories. We said prayers with Sister Clarissa for her mother, grandparents and great-grand parents. There is a beautiful chapel at this cemetery with a huge statue of the Pieta (my favorite statue) and a beautiful crucifix. Unfortunately, the typhoon did a great deal of damage to the chapel and it has not been repaired since. It struck me as having a tragic beauty, though and I would have liked to have spent a few hours there in contemplation. But instead, we had mass just outside the cemetery on the roadside. We also attended one more mass at another cemetery, just as crowded by people remembering their loved ones.
I do know a few people in my little circles who visit the graves of their loved ones, perhaps on birthdays, anniversaries or near holidays. I myself never really did that at all until my nephew Benjamin died. I do go to visit his grave on his birthday, near Christmas and in the spring to clean it up after the winter, but I do not think, other than the day he was buried, that there were other people there visiting their loved ones at the same time as me. This celebration of All Saints and All Souls Day was so amazing because it seemed the world stopped for two days to remember deceased families and friends, to pray for their souls, to take time out to actually visit the gravesides. I think this is exactly what the Church intended when it set aside these two special days that, at least in America, are largely overlooked and forgotten, perhaps like the loved ones we have buried.
In my reading today it says, "Today we intercede with particular fervor for all souls who await their final glorification. This is our gift and our responsibility as members of the family, the one Body of Christ. Love of neighbor is not limited to our neighbors who are still among us. Love unites us with those who have gone before us. Indeed, it is a great act of charity to offer our prayers and to have masses celebrated for our deceased brothers and sisters-that they too may rejoice to see God face to face." We don't know if our loved ones who have passed on are in the glory of God's eternal home yet. They may be in purgatory in need of our prayers. I remember my brother Mark telling me once that if we pray for a soul who already in heaven and does not need our prayers, that prayer is bounced off like a pinball and goes to another soul in need, perhaps to the neediest soul. Prayers for the dead are never wasted, they are never in vain.
I feel so blessed to have been here in Borongan to remember and pray for all of our beloved dead, to experience these two days the way I believe they were intended to be observed and to, once again, learn and grow more deeply in my faith thanks to true missionary souls.
