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Todos los Santos Filipino Flavor |
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There is a French proverb that defines dead “as those who does not have friends...” But in Philippines this is never true for the dead spent at least one day a year with their families, relatives and friends.
Every November 1 all roads lead to cemeteries, as majority of Filipinos take time to remember their loved ones and friends who parted away. Although this day is actually the feast of the Saints in Philippines it is more like a feast for the dead. Prayers, flowers and candles flooded the cemeteries in a fiesta-like ambiance. We pass the time their sharing food, exchanging stories or playing games (scrabble, poker, etc) in a happy and relaxed atmosphere. Most often people take time to head to the cemeteries very early in the morning to avoid the rush and traffic. Or just simply to have longer time to find the graveyard of their loved ones as small streets and towering layers of graves in the cemetery could be like a big labyrinth. Considering the unstoppable prices of land in Philippines even in cemeteries we have the same agony: prices are so expensive different families are obliged to share one graveyard that leads to towering layer of graves that we often call the “condominiums of grave”. There are some families that this system is still unaffordable and therefore choose to rent out the land for certain number of years only to be exhumed at the end of the contract or just simply squat. Ironically for those that have money their mausoleum is so well equipped with all the comforts and luxuries (TV, air condition, refrigerator, etc.) that we can even imagine living there. The observance of All Saints’ Day is a one-day affair where three businesses dominate the cemeteries: selling water, renting toilet and selling candle drops (collected candle drops of the day could be sell around 30 pesos per kilo (50 centavos).
But at the end of day when all these merry making is over, cemeteries will be once again empty and could finally find back their peace for the rest of the year
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