“A Day for remembering”
“Time to remember the dead”
“Remembering the departed loved ones”
“Time for soul searching”
“Meditations on All Souls Day”
“Thoughts on All Souls Day”
These are the titles we picked from Soledad “Choleng” Hidalgo’s clippings that reflect this somber time of the year when people troop to the provinces to honor their loved ones and extra buses loaded to capacity. Pinoys come from afar for what we call Undas, a practice carried on by many, even after moving to other parts of the globe, much like an extra luggage to unpack on November 1 and 2. The same phenomenon happens during the latter part of the month that drives people in the US to travel, airports teeming with passengers for flights to carry them across miles to join family and friends for Thanksgiving. It Is the same homing spirit, when families find time to be together.
We feature excerpts from Choleng Hidalgo’s columns which she wrote for a Bicol newspaper about All Saints and All Souls Days practices. Are we still doing the same customs? With the same thought and understanding? What has changed visibly through time?
A Day for remembering
All Saints Day, Eve of All Souls Day Nov 2 is a yearly date with our beloved dead and all roads lead to the city of death, the cemetery…. Peñafrancia Cemetery… Here you meet your acquaintances, old Naga residents and friends you have not seen for a long time…. We also have the city cemetery at Concepcion Pequeña which is non-denominational… most favored by Chinese nationals, rich and poor alike. Here also are buried are the city’s poorest, paupers and those not accepted by the Catholic church like suicides and criminals, for example. Last but not least, the Santo Niño Memorial Park is mostly patronized by the elite of Naga. Anyway, when we believe that when you die, you are dust and to dust, you will return… All paths of glory lead but to the grave. (Then follows a parade of names, saints, and sinners. She names her own loved ones who she honors with flowers and candles.) She makes this remark at the end, “I wonder who will take all this trouble when I’m gone.”
Time to remember the dead
Going to the cemetery is like visiting your future home… it will be our final resting place. Most young people think of death as something far away… So many young men are dying these days… We should spare some time and meditate. We begin to be aware of things that really count… the loveliness of nature, the kindness of God, the value of friendships, and you realize the true meaning of this life that God has given us.
Remembering the departed loved ones
A time for sadness and remembering. We never feel it in our gut except when death has claimed someone special… Closest to me is daughter Chit, whose memory lingers at all hours, especially in the wee hours… It was a time of heart-wrenching experience at 2:00 PM March 19 when the hearse arrived from the Philippine National Railways station when her favorite pet Wicket leaps from nowhere and stood by me by the gate and gave such a mournful cry… In the darkness I could feel her presence. Why so young, so lively, so full of plans for her children. Why? Then those lost moments came flooding back. (Choleng recalls her daughter Chit coming to her before going to work, itching to share a story but she had to attend to farm tasks.) Then when I came back, she had gone to PNB …There must be some lesson here. Never let go these precious moments of empathy, endearment and solicitude, they may never come back.
Time for soul searching
We experience again the sad and painful memories of our beloved dead… for old parents, with regrets that they have not given them enough of the gratitude they deserved… It is said the most painful separation is between mother and son or daughter… the pathos of bereavement…. A sense of life having been wasted. So many young ones cut in the prime of life “Canogon pa.” All Souls Day is also a time for soul searching…. How short life can be and how terribly death can strike…. How ridiculous our human foibles are. Where have all the great men gone?… six feet under. All these show life’s uncertainties… just as many, wobbly, arthritic, garrulous old ones who are still around making life miserable with their longevity… In any case, bring the daisies while I’m still around. As Johnny Midnight used to say: While I can still see the lovely things and smell the fragrance of the roses and hear the beautiful sound of music. Tomorrow may be too late.
Meditations on All Souls Day
As one mother told me on the death of her son: “No matter how many children you have, when one of them dies, it is as if you have only one.” Another one told me: “it is ten years now since my son died, but there is never a day that for a moment I remember him. It is as if a scar has been seared into my flesh. Little things remind me of him, and flashes of what he did come to me, even the way he tied his shoes and the breathless way he came from play.” … Although others, of course, there are people who take death philosophically… Those who believe in the next world are so strong. She relates the statements of Vice President Pelaez after the assassination attempt on him, how it impacted his life after. Other stories of the foibles of men and women……
Thoughts on All Souls Day
How do we celebrate Undas now? It is veritably the same, still with so much fervor in many families, even those living here in Manila, as these become family reunions as well. Of course, we cannot erase the quality of attention we render for our beloved dead. It is still customary to pray novenas and offer Masses for the Dead. In the provinces or certain homes, bouquets and floral arrangements are still done. For others it has become convenient to pick them up near the cemeteries or flower shops. It has become a big business for growers, flower shops and candle makers. As well as caterers for food service. Many changes have attained normalcy so that the family bonding is enhanced with food and fun around the memorial park. A few days before, cemeteries already have tents ready for vendors. There are also fun activities like “Trick or Treat” with Halloween costumes in malls, hotels and villages to engage children – although it has no connection to the observance of All Souls Day.
Postscript
Even our faith does not give us all the answers to the questions of life and death. Although, of course, our religion teaches us that death is not the end of life but its real beginning. There are people who do not believe in the afterlife, but most of us do. Many things have been written about souls returning. She writes about several exemplary figures like Ninoy Aquino, John F. Kennedy, Mahatma Gandhi, Jose Rizal, and Andres Bonifacio.
Contributed by:
TELLY HIDALGO HOW is a retired pediatrician and professor of pharmacology at the University of the Philippines, College of Medicine. Born and raised in Naga City, her parents were Dr. Jesus F Hidalgo, medical practitioner, and Soledad Dato Hidalgo, columnist and writer. She graduated from Colegio de Sta. Isabel, High School in 1965. She completed her medical degree from UP College of Medicine in 1974. She is an Emeritus Professor in UP.