Remembrances

After two years of not being able to celebrate All Saints’ Day due to the effects of the COVID19 pandemic, Filipinos flocked to various cemeteries, memorial parks and columbaria to remember their dearly departed. Referred to as Todos los santos or Undas in local parlance, the November 1st celebration, which may include All Souls’ Day on November 2nd, is one of those public holidays that prompt our kababayans to travel back to their hometowns and provinces so that they could offer flowers and light candles in remembrance of deceased family members, friends and other revered personalities.

The commemoration almost always becomes an occasion for a reunion among the living held at the resting place of the dead, thus lending a festive air to the gathering, aided and abetted by copious amounts of food and drink brought for the purpose. No wonder some people refer to the event as “Pista ng Patay”, signalling that very Filipino trait of having fun and breaking bread at every opportunity.

Our Guest of Honor and Speaker today, Police General Rodolfo Azurin Jr, Chief of the Philippine National Police, said that “Undas 2022, as the national observance of All Saints’ Day this year, was generally peaceful and orderly. Aside from minor incidents reported by different Police Regional Offices, no significant untoward incidents were monitored nationwide.” Last week, the PNP said it placed all its stations nationwide on full alert as part of the security measures for Undas. Some 192,000 police personnel were deployed to Metro Manila cemeteries alone. General Azurin also said that policemen have been deployed to 6,047 public assistance desks in cemeteries and memorial parks as well as to public assistance centers in land, sea, and air transportation hubs for the expected influx of returning travellers.

The minor incidents cited by the PNP Chief included cases of some people who attempted to bring banned items such as lighters and bladed weapons into the cemeteries. Another was the arrest of one person for bringing a calibre .22 firearm with live ammunition to a cemetery in Parañaque City.

It reminded me of some friends who used to bring food and other items to the graves of their loved ones, with the explanation that those are the favorite of the deceased. One of them would always put a Johnny Walker Red Label on his dad’s tomb, but the bottle would remain unopened, to be taken home together with the unlit candles and the leftover food. For display only, he would say. One year, I noticed that the level of the liquid in the bottle was lower than usual and that the cap had been unsealed. “Nabuksan ko last week, pare, nung nag-inuman sa bahay,” he explained. “Nilagyan ko na lang ng iced tea, for display only.”

As a boy, I usually escaped the boring kwentuhan of the grown-ups during Undas by roaming the entire cemetery area of Baliwag, Bulacan with my friends. That meant walking through the Catholic cemetery, the municipal cemetery, and the memorial park, all adjacent to one another. We would check out the latest renovations made on the mausoleums of the town’s elite; the expensive flower arrangements and candles offered by the nouveau riche; the siopao, barbecue, inihaw na mais and ice cream available from various hawkers; and the attractions of the local perya which inevitably sprouted on the street right beside the cemetery.

One of my more vivid recollections from these wanderings was a loud and profanity-laced quarrel between two families over one of the “apartment-type” tombs in the Catholic cemetery. Apparently, one family came the day before to clean and repaint the tomb (the front part of it, anyway) they had been leasing for decades. They left to allow the white paint to dry, intending to return early the next day to paint the name of the deceased in stylish calligraphy. Upon returning, they found that another family had installed a photo of their own deceased loved one, with accompanying flower arrangements and candles, on the tomb that the former had cleaned and repainted. This other family insisted that their loved one’s resting place had always been the third tomb from the top and eleventh from the left. The quarrel was resolved by the sepulturero, who explained that two additional tiers of “apartment” tombs were installed during the summer to accommodate more lessors.

No matter how much we have culturally appropriated All Saints’ Day to become the Undas that we now know and celebrate, one thing remains constant: it is a day especially dedicated to honor the memories of those who are no longer with us. It is therefore but apropos to remember Paul P. Harris, Leon J. Lambert and the 37 other charter members of RCM, all deceased Past Presidents, and all deceased RCMers whose contributions helped make our Club the strong and vibrant Club that it is today. May their legacy be preserved by our own efforts to consistently be in the service of our vocations, our Club, and our community.