October 31, 2008 - Here in the Philippines, Halloween is not a big holiday.

Oh, the upscale malls and fast food restaurants have Halloween parties, where kids come in costumes, but here in the Provinces, the big Holiday starts tomorrow: All Saint's Day and then All Soul's Day.

Most Catholics will go to Mass and pray for the dead, but the important part of All Saint's Day is celebrated by families visiting the tombs of their ancestors, saying prayers for their souls. Then comes the important part: cleaning up the cemetery plots, and decorating them with flowers and candles.

Since all of this takes time, it means usually the families come with a picnic lunch, and the kids run around playing while the parents clean and decorate the tombs.

There are usually vendors there, selling things in case you forgot them: flowers, brooms, soap, paint and candles for the graves, and of course drinks and snacks and small toys for the kids, to keep them occupied while you clean up.

Usually also the local kids are there to "help" you clean: for ten cents they will sweep and throw away the dirt and leaves that tend to be blown around.

But the holiday is a way for families to renew their ties with their ancestors and their families, and here the families are large and extended, with aunts and uncles and cousins.

So visiting the graves is a family affair, because the dead who are in heaven are still part of your family, and pray for you. Americans see themselves as individuals, but in Philippine culture, you are part of a family, and that includes the family who has died and gone before you to heaven.

In Catholicism, the phrase " communion of saints" is used to describe our ties to those who have gone before us.

And here, that idea is more than an empty phrase, but part of life.



Nancy Reyes is a retired doctor living in the Phillipines. She is the author of a number of blogs including Finest Kind Clinic and Fishmarket.

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