The nation pays respect to its dead today, All Saints’ Day, in keeping with a Filipino family tradition spanning generations, in a celebration that has transcended political and economic storms to share precious moments in silence and prayers with loved ones who have gone to their eternal rest.
Former President Joseph Estrada will join ordinary citizens in today’s celebration after almost seven years under government detention. He will finally be able to visit the graveyard of his father, the late Emilio Ejercito, Sr., and his deceased brothers and sister buried in the family mausoleum in San Juan.
Estrada, during his detention, was not allowed to visit the family mausoleum and was not even allowed to attend the burial of a brother a few years back.
While Metro Manila’s main thoroughfares are almost bare of vehicular traffic today, cemeteries and memorial parks will be brimming with tens of thousands of families expected to pay homage to their dead. Austerity, however, has become the order of the day as Filipinos brace for hard times ahead due to the global financial meltdown.
Fast-food chains offering everything from hamburgers to hot dogs and chicken barbecues have put up stalls since early this week to take advantage of the human traffic, while ice cream and balloon vendors will be at every nook and cranny where little children and toddlers are found.
Grandparents, parents, and grandchildren will stream into cemeteries and memorial parks bringing with them bouquets of fresh flowers, candles, and food to last the day amid bumper-to-bumper vehicular traffic.
For generations, All Saints’ Day has continued to serve as a family reunion among relatives who, by tradition, faithfully keep vigil at the graveyard of their departed loved ones from early morning until after sunset.
The Philippine National Police has assured the public of a peaceful observance of All Saints’ Day with a big number of officers assigned in all the roads leading to, and inside cemeteries, while traffic cops will be in every corner prepared to give assistance to motorists.
Thousands of Boys Scouts and private volunteers will join policemen, doctors, and nurses to extend first-aid and other medical assistance.
Today’s celebration follows an ancient religious tradition of remembering martyrs who later were canonized as saints in accordance with Catholic liturgical processes held only at the Vatican in Rome.
In the Philippines, All Saints’ Day has become a deep-rooted family tradition handed down from generation to generation. While in Metro Manila it is observed on November 1, in the provinces, the visit to cemeteries is observed on November 2, or All Souls’ Day, which is also a Church holiday.
The steep rise in food and oil prices has forced the thinning crowds in supermarkets and grocery stores for today’s observance, paling in comparison to the multitudes some seven or eight years ago. Even in public and private markets, vendors were complaining of slow sales.
In the past, giant supermarkets, grocery stores, public and private markets looked forward to the week before All Saints’ Day as the opening bonanza of sales that would last until the Christmas holidays and the first days of the New Year. But not anymore.
According to a Makati supermarket clerk, "times are really, really bad, and we can only stare in apprehension to a bleak Christmas holiday sales if this week’s numbers are to be the barometer."
Even Metro Manila’s trendy flower shops and those in five-star hotels that always enjoyed brisk sales on Valentine’s and All Saints’ Day almost looked barren, with only a few orders for flower arrangements.
The popular Dangwa flower stalls in Dapitan, Manila has become the shopping hub of families where imported blooms and flowers from Baguio are sold at almost "a dime a dozen." Here, flowers are sold by piece or by the dozen, the arrangement left to the shoppers that afforded many families "bonding time and creativity".
Hard times or not, however, Filipino families would still take time off their daily chores on the first two days of November in keeping with the tradition of communing with their dead in prayers, sharing some precious moments of silence.
It is a time when millions take a page from their past recalling happy moments with their departed loved ones, letting them know they are not, and will never be, forgotten.
Venerate, not worship the saints, says Church
By LESLIE ANN G. AQUINO
A Catholic Church official yesterday reminded the faithful to venerate but not worship the saints in view of today’s observance of All Saints’ Day.
Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Media Director, said celebrating the feast of the saints is not in any way worshipping the canonized sons and daughters of the Church since the honor is given to God alone.
"To worship a saint is idolatry. Catholics venerate the saints to honor them and to intercede for them," he said in a statement.
"According to Christian beliefs, the saints continually pray for us and intercede on our behalf. As such, asking a saint for his or her intercession is perfectly legitimate and not idolatrous—in much the same way that asking a friend or a priest to pray for us is not idolatrous," the prelate explained.
While All Saints’ Day is simply a day to celebrate the lives of all the great heroes of the Christian faith, as well as the people’s deep communion with them, Quitorio said the observance still attains a profound meaning.
"All Saints Day attains a most profound meaning because of our belief in eternal life and in the communion of the saints," he said.
Quitorio, meantime, revealed that a plenary indulgence, a full or general pardon from the Catholic Church for one’s sins, may be gained by the faithful in the first eight days of November.
"The faithful may gain plenary indulgence by visiting a cemetery and praying for the dead. On other days of the year, only a partial indulgence is gained," he said.
He said those who wish to earn plenary indulgence on All Saints (Nov. 1) and All Souls Day (Nov. 2), would have to do three things: visit a church or oratory, pray the "Our Father" and the "Creed", and also pray for the intention of the Holy Father.
This day, known as "Undas" or "Todos los Santos," as well as the one before and after it observed in the country as All Hallow’s Eve or Halloween and All Souls’ Day, respectively, are traditionally spent visiting the graves of deceased loved ones, relatives, and friends to offer prayers and flowers and to light candles.
The day gathers families and friends who seldom see each other the rest of the year.
Originally known as the Feast of All Martyrs in memory of the martyrs of the early Church who died for their faith in Christ, All Saints’ Day has evolved into a solemn observance during which the Church remembers all who have died in the faith.
Pope Gregory (731-741) consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome to all the saints and fixed the observance to Nov. 1. Pope Gregory IV (827-844) extended the celebration to the Universal Church in 837.
Pope Urban IV said the celebration of the feast "supplies any deficiencies in the faithful’s celebration of the saints’ feasts during the year."
Meanwhile, people trooping to cemeteries this weekend, particularly in Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, must brace themselves for rainshowers due to a large weather system that is expected to bring widepread rains and thunderstorms in the next three days.
Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) weather branch chief Nathaniel Cruz, in a statement yesterday, said the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) will bring scattered to widespread rainshowers and thunderstorms particularly over Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
He said the rest of Luzon, particularly Northern and Central Luzon, will have "good weather conditions" except for some "passing light rains, mostly over the eastern section."
Cruz meanwhile said a low pressure area (LPA) may possibly develop by Sunday, Nov. 2.
"Formation or approach of a low pressure area on the eastern part of Visayas on November 2 is possible, which could bring frequent rains (over Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao)," Cruz warned. (with report by Christina Hermoso and Madel Sabater)
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