Runningtindera's Scratch Post: Daily thoughts - Saints and Souls Day fast forward a year later

November 1 is a holiday in the Philippines and sometimes even October 31st or November 2. The extra day (if Oct 31 falls on a weekday) is is to allow us Filipinos to have enough time to travel all the way to the province to visit family and of course our dearly departed. Traffic is hell on such a day.

Since my grandparents passed away many years ago ( I was 10 ) it has been a tradition of my family to go to Pampanga. My paternal grandparents, an aunt and cousin are all buried in one cemetery. My Dad has never missed a year visiting his parent's grave eversince they passed away. He usually arrives a few days before the actual All saints or souls day. He ensures that his folks resting place is presentable before other relatives come to visit. He would help his nephews or other sibling spruce up his parent's tombstone and repaint the gate and also the metal foundation used to prop up the tent. Last year things changed though. My Dad passed away on the 30th of September. We spent our November 1st at the cemetery where he was buried.

The trip from my house to the cemetery was swift and not uncomfortable.It took me only 10 minutes to get there. I arrived around 2pm and my brothers and their wives were already there. They also brought other dishes so we can have something to eat while we hung out. I was late because I had to make sure all the pets at home were fed and I had to cook the most important food for the day. My contribution to the gathering was rice. hehehe

The cemetery looked like a huge park and it was teeming with people, tents, tables despite the fact it was drizzling that day. There were also kids everywhere donned in costumes for trick and treating. If not for the headstones, it was like there was a fair on a regular park.

food my brothers' wives prepared

these poor guys didnt have a tent

Here are some photos of kids (and pets) who participated in the trick or treat event:

my niece

our cat Electra

little grim reaper

little lady bug

Igor?

mini hunchback

It turned out a pleasant day although I was still very lonely and I missed my Dad terribly.We had good food and my niece had fun during the trick or treating. Our cat had a great time too! He was like a celebrity that day. Sadly he passed away on April 11 this year.

There were fireworks in the evening unfortunately my camera died on me and I wasnt able to take videos. Here was the last photo I took. Its my niece wearing her devil headband.

my little devil

This year the weather was perfect. I couldve gone earlier than 2pm today but I had to feed the cats, do some laundry, cook rice and cocktail hotdogs and later I also had to get some lechon manok in town. I made it to the cemetery around 4PM.

Hello again Daddy

The flowers were beautiful but my brother who bought it wasnt there. This is a once a year event and it was just me, one of my 4 brothers and his wife. The sad part, my Dad has been gone for only a year and its like they have forgotten him already. My mom and grandmother arrived around 7PM.

Oh well, we didnt let that spoil our mood. Besides we brought a lot of good food.

Pancit Malabon, hotdog and lechon manok and rice of course

awesome giant ensaymada I bought from shopwise

Random photos of the cemetery today:

kids trick or treating

"apartment" style grave

candles at night

this is fuzzy but those guys have armalites. yeah overkill security but thats better than no security at all.


flowers on my dad's headstone

cross on the hilltop

food for Daddy

nice flowers

a weird tradition we have over here for the dead where we leave food for them too

apartment style grave at night

Lastly here are videos of the fireworks:

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos. My camera is a little rinky dinky now since Ive had it for 4 years. In case youre wondering why there were 10 instead of just 1 long video, we all thought that the fireworks display was over. Then after a couple of minutes theyd set off another batch.

I will miss the Dia de los Muertos or Undas and the festivities in my country. But what Ill miss most though are the pets in the house. They have been my stressballs and companion for over a year.