November 1st is Todos Los Santos (All Saints Day) a big holiday in the Philippines. It is the day for families to remember those who have passed. They do this by spending the day at their family mausoleum, cleaning and repainting it and decorating with candles, flowers, wreaths and photographs. It is by no means a sad day. It is spent eating and talking, visiting friends and extended family. Although for me it was a little sad thinking off all the loss that those at the cemetery have suffered at some point at another, they do not see it this way. They truly celebrate life.
Cemeteries in the Philippines are VERY different from the ones at home. They do not consist of rows of tombstones, but rather are more like little villages of structures of varying intricacy to house the newly interred and later their bones. The typical mausoleum is an airy concrete structure with a roof, and a wrought iron fence, the floors either made of pebbles, tiles or marble. On the back wall there are marble nameplates that mark where bones are stored after they have fully decomposed and if there are plates on the ground there is someone new there. This is very basic, some are even more basic, but others… this is where I got a huge shock… even if someone had tried to describe to me before hand, I certainly would not have believed it. I quickly noticed many mausoleum had lights, some had restrooms! Then other still had second floors!!! They were filled with tables and people having parties. Others had beautiful sculptures, granite altars, electric fans, mosaic work, cube glass walls, some were as big and as richly appointed as houses I have seen. It is really quite an enchanting effect to see mausoleum after another, each one a different shape and size and style.
Most people spend the entire day, but since I was at the hospital the night before with my lola (grandmother) I went in the evening. The road leading to the cemetery was closed to traffic except some motorcycles. The barangay (neighbourhood) slowly transformed from homes to mausoleums and the street became absolutely packed with people. Food vendors lined the street and the smoke and smell of squid balls and barbeque permeated the air. Even Chow King, Jollybee and Greenwich, common fastfood establishments had stalls. Children were also sporting charming light up devil horns and flashing toys… definitely a risk for epilepsy. It was difficult to get proper pictures of it all because it was so dark and it would have been very inappropriate to set up my tripod in front of other people’s mausoleum, and there were so so so many people, even stopping was hard.
There would be no way at all for me to find my family mausoleum on my own, but I realized people go every single year from childhood, so they know where to go. I went around to see different people, and then I finally got to see my great grand parents, whom I was lucky enough to meet when they were alive. I was in the Philippines when my great grand father died, I was at that place almost 16 years ago, off by only 6 weeks.
Near to my family mausoleum is a different section of tombs, affectionately known as ‘the apartments.’ This where bones go when there is no family mausoleum. It is basically stacked concrete boxes. It is quite beautiful.
It was a really great experience, an important day on every Filipino calendar and I can’t wait until next year!
November was a busy month... no time for blogging... but coming soon: my trip to NEGROS!
Great-Lolo
Great-Lola
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