All Saints Day in the Philippines
Festive Celebrations Amid the Tombs

Q U I C K S C A N

The custom goes back to pre-Spanish times
More details about the Filipino custom
Filipino joviality and sense of fun
Food is part of the celebration

I have many vivid memories of my three-year stint in the Philippines as a literature teacher at the Franciscan seminary college (Our Lady of the Angels) near Manila (1969-72). Among these memories is that of visiting cemeteries with Filipino families on November 1, All Saints Day. On that day, thousands and thousands of families come to the cemeteries to honor ancestors and relatives who have died—and to enjoy festive picnics and family reunions among the tombs.

Before the feast day itself, many have spruced up the tombs of their close relatives, often decorating them with flowers and balloons. The cemeteries in the Philippines, as a rule, do not consist of neat plots of grass with gravestones marking the presence of the deceased buried there below the earth. In the Philippines, many of the dead are laid to rest above ground in mausoleums (often white) of different sizes, some large enough to house the remains of many persons in separate compartments. Those who come to spend All Saints Day with their deceased relatives, therefore, gather together in this kind of setting. Here they come to find a place to sit on ledges or in the niches between the tombs. Here the families share food and stories or even games together in a party-like atmosphere.

I still have a photo taken around 1970 that shows two young Filipino men sitting on folding chairs outside a mausoleum (as large as a small house) engrossed in a game of chess. In another photo, family members are sitting on the ground, their backs against the walls of mausoleums. A young man, flanked by two smiling children, looks up from a newspaper with other family members rounding out the circle. A pink portable radio sits on a ledge nearby, no doubt playing popular tunes.

The custom goes back to pre-Spanish times

Many of us in the United States may be familiar with a similar custom, celebrated in Mexico and known as the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos). And some Mexican-American communities in the United States also observe the custom. The tradition goes back to pre-Christian times in Mexico, as well as in other Latin American countries. The Aztec and Mayan peoples, for example, observed this tradition. The ancient Aztecs believed that each year around July and August, the souls of the dead returned to visit their living relatives and loved ones. Thus a popular practice developed in which the relatives of the departed would go to the graves of their ancestors each year at this time, and—conscious of the recurring cycle of life, death and rebirth—they would celebrate a joyful and festive reunion with them, with an abundance of food and drink and good humor.

When the Spanish missionaries came to Mexico in the 16th century, they encouraged their Christian converts to move the celebration to November 1 and 2 so it would coincide with the Roman Catholic feasts of All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

More details about the Filipino custom

Spanish Missionaries also came to the Philippines in the 16th Century. No doubt a similar pattern took place there. Asian cultures, after all, are generally known for the great reverence, love and respect they show toward their elders and ancestors.

At this point I want to introduce to you a Filipino Franciscan friar who, at age 50, has been celebrating All Saints Day celebrations in his country for most of his life. He is Father Nestor Manlangit, O.F.M., who, I’m proud to say, is a former student of mine. Father Nestor was born near the city of Legaspi in Southern Luzon. Over the last 23 years, he has done pastoral work in different parts of the Philippines. Hence, he has surely experienced All Saints Day celebrations in a variety of settings. At present he serves as assistant pastor at a well-known Manila parish, which is also a shrine of St. Anthony, known as Santuario de San Antonio.

Nestor and I have been exchanging e-mails quite frequently in recent weeks, and so it seemed quite natural for me to ask him to comment, as a native Filipino, on the All Saints Day celebrations (in his country’s cemeteries). Here are some comments he was very willing to share with the readers of Friar Jack’s E-spirations:

“The joyful and celebratory spirit that marks our own version of the ‘Day of the Dead’ is a nationwide phenomenon. Here it is celebrated on November 1 instead of November 2 (All Souls Day). I know of several attempts of well-known pastors to try to ‘correct’ the practice—that is, to get people to observe November 2 as the real ‘All Souls Day’ or ‘Day of the Dead,’ but the practice has stuck on November 1. Old folks say it’s always been that way, so I guess it’s a national tradition that spans decades, if not centuries!

“The way it looks now,” Father Nestor continues, “it looks like we have two days instead of one to celebrate the Day of the Dead, although the government only recognizes November 1 as the national holiday (in accord with the popular practice). As a priest, I have sort of adopted this practice by linking the commemoration of our departed brothers and sisters with the Church’s teaching on the Communion of Saints and on our hope for the Resurrection. Consciously or unconsciously, we all look forward to being saints ourselves. This same hope is what makes us pray that our dear departed relatives and friends will finally experience the fullness of God’s kingdom and become saints as well.”

Filipino joviality and sense of fun

I shared with Nestor my impression that that way the Filipinos spent their day partying and celebrating at the cemetery suggested to me that the Filipinos’ way of visiting deceased relatives was more joyful—and less somber—than it might be for some Americans in the United States. The gathering of Filipinos around their tombs in a festive, picnic-like atmosphere, I observed, seemed the opposite of morbid or gloomy. Rather, I said, “Filipinos seemed to feel right at home with those who have passed on before them.”

This was Nestor’s response to my observations: “You have to give it to the Filipino joviality and sense of fun to always find something to celebrate even in the most somber or gloomy situations. Any big gathering of relatives could be such an occasion, be it a gathering for a baptism, wedding, funeral or, in this case, honoring the dead. Filipino families being quite extended, these gatherings are unique occasions where one meets 'long lost kin' and gets updated on one another’s life. The continuing bond of the living is extended to the dead relatives and it is renewed on this yearly occasion. Beyond praying for our beloved dead, we gather to renew family relationships with them. We thereby assure ourselves and them that they are not forgotten or apart from us even though we move on with our lives. Thus it is an occasion for celebration.”

Food is part of the celebration

We should note, continues Father Nestor, “that in many cases people who bring food to the tombs don’t just bring food for their own consumption. They also set aside portions as offerings for the dead, believing that somehow the dead still have a way of partaking in the earthly feast. This reinforces a bit your own perception that Filipinos seem ‘to feel right at home with those who have passed on before us.’ They actually believe that the departed are right there sharing the feast with them! And for those who might have missed the cemetery party, some even leave food, exclusively for the departed, at small altars in their homes.”

Father Nestor’s discussion of the importance of food in these joyful gatherings at the tomb prompts me to think about the importance of food in the Resurrection stories of Jesus and of the joyful nature of the risen Jesus’ visits or encounters with his disciples.

Recall, for example, how Jesus sits down and breaks bread with his two disciples at the village of Emmaus (Luke 24:30). The disciples’ eyes are suddenly opened to the full, joyful meaning of the Resurrection. Later when Jesus appears to the incredulous disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem, he asks, “Have you anything here to eat?” (Luke 24:31) They give him a piece of baked fish, which he eats before them! And who can forget the breakfast of bread and fish that Jesus—back from the dead—grilled for seven disciples over a charcoal fire and shared with them at the Sea of Galilee? (See John 21:9-14). All of this has meaning, of course, for our Eucharistic celebrations.

May the insights gained here—thanks to Father Nestor and the customs of our brothers and sisters in the Philippines and in Mexico—enrich our belief in the Communion of Saints and our celebration of the upcoming feasts of All Saints Day and All Souls Day!

[You can read about other aspects of Friar Jack’s time in the Philippines in his spiritual autobiography, Lights: Revelations of God’s Goodness.]

Friar Jim’s Inbox

Readers respond to Friar Jim’s “Catechism Quiz: Sacramentals.”

Dear Friar Jim: I have a relative who is very “into” some things that I don’t understand.  Among other things, she thinks you should bury a statue of St. Joseph in your yard to help sell your house. This seems more like voodoo than Christianity.  How is this explained? Jack

Dear Jack: I would agree with you. It does seem superstitious, though perhaps we can allow for personal difference when it comes to popular piety. In the best cases, people pray for the well-being of their families at this important time of moving and ask St. Joseph, patron of fathers, to pray with them. But sometimes planting a statue is done for superstitious reasons. You can learn lots more about all of this in St. Joseph, My Real Estate Agent, by Stephen J. Binz. Friar Jim

Dear Friar Jim: You mentioned in your recent newsletter that “we” make the Sign of the Cross before the reading of the Gospel. This has always been my family’s question: Do all people need to make the Sign of the Cross or only the person declaring the Gospel? In our parish, some people do some don’t, and I want to know what to tell my kids. Thank You. Claudette

Dear Claudette: Those hearing the Gospel should also sign themselves since it is a prayer requesting the Gospel to be a guide for their lives. Friar Jim

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