I've been telling my kids & nieces how important Undas or All Souls Day to our culture. Before, we, kids, participated in making flowers out of paper, straw or plastic. Fresh cut flowers were very limited in those times. Relatives living in distant provinces or cities will make it a point to travel back to their hometown to pay respect to their departed loved ones. All family members visit the cemetery. Even us kids, knew where the tombs were.
Some children or even adults went house to house for pangangaluluwa or caroling..."Kaluluwang tambing-tambing, sa purgatoryo nanggaling...kung kami po'y lilimusan, dali-dali na po lamang at baka mapagsarhan ng pinto ng kalangitan." Carolers will receive money or sometimes suman.
Mothers prepared snacks made from sticky rice, suman, biko o sinukmani, tutong or bilo-bilo. In the afternoon, or evening after visiting the cemetery, there will be a family gathering. They will feast on these snacks while catching up on each other’s lives.
Now, the setting is different. Instead of going home to the provinces, some are having their vacation in their fave resorts. No more pangangaluluwa. This was replaced by the western "trick or treat". Posh subdivisions and malls are doing this annually.
Numbers of people visiting the cemetery decreases over the years and even the weather changes. Before, though it's not always sunny, downpour was not that heavy. But now, it's hard to paint the tombs coz it's always raining. Last year there's a typhoon. I remember watching news report on how a cemetery was washed out by heavy flood. Town folks were not able to locate their tombs and end up lighting candles at home.
Scenarios in the cemetery also differ. Every year, there’s a new tomb color being introduced. White is the generic color…we saw blue, yellow and now pink. Roofs of our neighboring tombs were stolen years ago. Metal gates disappeared and now stainless inscriptions in the tombstones were gone. Even tombs were hacked in search of jewelries or gold teeth. Quite disgusting!
This leaves me wondering with a heavy heart…will our next generations continue this family tradition? Will my kids, nieces and nephews , able to remember the location of our grandparents, parents and our future tombs? Will they take time to remember and visit us on this special day? I really hope so. It’s something that binds and connects family together…or else my last will, will specify that my body be cremated and thrown somewhere else.
