No pumpkins, no trick-or-treating, no costumes.
Halloween in the Philippines, as our family celebrated it when I was a young girl, was called "All Soul's Day" or Todos Los Santos on October 31st.
The first scary thing about the holiday was...the traffic jam created by all these cars lined up to go into the cemetery, Loyola Cemetery, where my mom's parents were buried. I remember the smell of candles and garlands of this fragrant flower called Sampaguita which vendors hawked along the way.
Once we got in to the cemetery, it was time to settle in for the rosary (I was Catholic then, LDS now). Usually one of the elder aunts recited it for us to follow along. It was really hard to concentrate because...
...sometimes I would see a hand rise up from behind the grave markers.
(photo by yveslecoq on Flickr)
Well, I imagined one...
It was also hard to concentrate on prayers because all around us was a big party.
Music. Loud laughter. Food spread on top of people's graves. The whole place blazed with lights from candles.
I thought then how rude of these people to not be solemn this day commemorating the dead.
But now that I think back, perhaps it was good to be celebrating the living, too!
***
If you want to see how I celebrate Halloween today, come by my scary photo post (that needs a caption) on my blog "Pink Ink".
My name is Jewel. Welcome to my blog!
As a young girl growing up in the Philippines, I always hoped for storms so ferocious that school would have to be cancelled. And when it was cancelled, my siblings and I got to stay home. Usually there was no electricity, which we called "black out".
Who cared about the storm outside when we had wax from the candle, to mold into a human shape and stick pins in...just kidding, we weren't really into voodoo. Anyway, along with the wax sculpting, we exchanged suspenseful stories, of ghosts and aswang and the mananaggal.
This blog is dedicated to that spine-tingling story, of things imagined or real. Come on in, grab a blob of wax and join me around the table.
Who cared about the storm outside when we had wax from the candle, to mold into a human shape and stick pins in...just kidding, we weren't really into voodoo. Anyway, along with the wax sculpting, we exchanged suspenseful stories, of ghosts and aswang and the mananaggal.
This blog is dedicated to that spine-tingling story, of things imagined or real. Come on in, grab a blob of wax and join me around the table.
Friday, October 31, 2008
A Grave Tradition
Posted by Jewel Allen at 6:59 AM 8 comments
Labels: my childhood, Philippines
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
An Excited Reader
Me: How was school today?
Youngest daughter: *shrugs* We had a sub today.
Me: *after a long pause, waiting for more* Anything else interesting?
Youngest daughter: *eyes light up* I got another Warriors book!
For a good ten, fifteen minutes, my youngest daughter proceeds to tell me all about Squirrelpaw, Leafpaw and Cinderpelt, cats who figure prominently in Erin Hunter's book Dawn from her Warriors series.
That I can write a book that would excite a reader like my youngest daughter!
Posted by Jewel Allen at 2:23 PM 3 comments
Labels: characters
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