Todos Los Santos

I will always cherish fond memories of my childhood when our family would all be at Kalookan cemetery visiting the tomb of our grandparents every November 1st to observe Todos Los Santos or All Saints Day. We lit candles in honour and memory of our dear departed. It was an annual trek to an otherwise eerie place, bringing close and distant relatives together and spending hours from early evening till past midnight just chatting and reminiscing. Foods and drinks were in abundance, treating the cemetery as if it were picnic grounds.

As the older relatives preoccupied themselves with the food, drinks and idle talk to pass the time, my cousins and I would go around the neighbouring tombs and gather melted candles and roll them into a ball. My favourites were those from our Chinese neighbours because their candles were very colourful – mostly red with gold trim. I don’t remember anymore why we did it or where we brought the melted candle balls after that night. All I recall was the fun and excitement we felt upon seeing who had the biggest and most colourful ball. I loved Todos Los Santos because it was another occasion for us children to meet and play with young relatives whom we had not seen for a year.

Those were good years. Life seemed to be simple and not so complicated.

When we became teen-agers, my cousins and I would still go with our parents to the cemetery observing the annual tradition. No longer going around gathering the melted candles, we would spend the time renewing acquaintances with the other teen-agers from the neighbouring tombs. As our parents chatted with the relatives, we would be exchanging smiles and phone numbers with the other teen-agers our age.

Through the years, more and more people would troop to the cemetery. The place had become too crowded and no longer as accommodating as it used to be in the early 1960s. My parents decided we would go either the day before (October 31) or day after (November 2) to pay our respect for the dead and also to avoid the crowd. A few of our relatives decided to do the same and so the group had become smaller. During my college years, there were a few November 1st reunions that I missed. I remember making excuses so that I would be left behind at home, and only my younger sisters would be with my parents to light the candles at the cemetery.

In the early 1980s, my father had passed away and later on, so did his two older brothers. They were all buried in the same family plot with their parents in the Kalookan cemetery, and now they are with our other relatives who have also passed away.

I have been away for many years now and being in Winnipeg, I have not observed Todos Los Santos the way we did in the past. I am pleased that our relatives who are still in the Philippines meet every November 1st with their children at our family plot in Kalookan. I was told that their children would still gather melted candles but only from among those within our family plot and that they are not allowed to go “tomb-hopping” like we did when we were young – for security reasons, of course. It’s a different world out there now but I am glad that even if my mother and my sisters, and some cousins are no longer in the Philippines, our relatives continue and keep the Todos Los Santos tradition alive.

***

Remember to adjust your clocks on Sunday, November 1st, when daylight saving time ends. Commonly referred as “fall back,” this gives all of us an extra hour of sleep. The time change occurs at 2:00 a.m., November 1st, when clocks must be set back to 1:00 a.m. To avoid staying up late, set your clocks back an hour before you go to bed.

Have a comment on this article? Send Emmie your feedback