‘A year’s worth of love’: Filipinos remember their departed on All Saints Day
Metro Manila, Philippines — Once a year, some take advantage of the Undas holidays to remember their departed — something they admit they can't do amid seemingly unending work and other daily tasks.
Jhong Mejia, a resident of Tondo, Manila, braved the heat and a long walk inside Manila North Cemetery on Friday, Nov. 1. All Saints Day is a regular holiday in the Philippines.
"Para lang madalaw lang namin 'yong mama nila kasi isang beses lang naman sa isang taon [So that we can visit their mom because it's just once a year]," Mejia, a widower, told NewsWatch Plus. His wife Arlyn got sick and died last April.
The Mejia family gathers around the tomb of their mother Arlyn, who passed away in April this year. (Eric Bastillador/NewsWatch Plus)
Mejia was with his three children and a grandchild, sitting directly on another tomb, their feet resting on their mother's. They were waiting for other relatives to arrive.
"Actually, linggo-linggo pumupunta rito dinadalaw namin siya. Pero masakit lalo kailan lang siya namatay, mahirap," Mejia said.
[Translation: Actually, we come here almost weekly to visit her. But it's painful and difficult especially since she died just recently.]
"Sa mga anak ko na nandito, sana lumaki sila nang maayos, mabait, gaya nang mama nila.”
(Translation: For my children who are here, hopefully their grow up well and kind, just like their mother.)
Mejia was one of over a million who visited the Manila North Cemetery, one of the biggest cemeteries in the metropolis, on Friday. Authorities have been monitoring movements in cemeteries for the Undas season since Tuesday, Oct. 29.
Others paid a visit not only to their loved ones, but remarkable Filipinos as well.
In Manila North Cemetery, the tomb of the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. was also frequented by supporters and other curious bystanders. Beside FPJ was his wife Susan Roces, who died in May 2022.
Supporters of the late actor Fernando Poe Jr., including Froilan and Mary Anne Paigalan, visit his tomb at the Manila North Cemetery on Friday, Nov. 1.(Eric Bastillador/NewsWatch Plus)
"Parang dinadala ako mismo ng katawan ko," Froilan Paigalan told NewsWatch Plus. "Katawan ko na mismo ang gusto pumunta dito."
[Translation: It's like my body is being sent here. It's my body who wants to go here.]
Paigalan, with her wife Mary Anne, mainly visited their departed two-year-old child, who had sepsis. They also shared that Mary Anne got a recent miscarriage.
"Mabigat pa din, nagkaiba lang, medyo nagiging maluwag na lang na tanggapin," Mary Anne said.
[Translation: It's still with a heavy feeling, but the difference now, we accept it wholeheartedly.]
"'Yon 'yong araw na kailangan natin sila paglaanan ng oras, kailangan nating ipagpaliban kung ano man 'yong ginagawa natin para mapuntahan natin," she said of the holiday. "Yearly mo nalang mapupuntahan lalo kung nasa malayo ka."
[Translation: It's the day that we give them time. We need to drop whatever we do to visit them. It will only be a yearly thing if you're far away.]
For 18-year-old Lian Aristoteles, she knows the importance of Undas. But she also said that their family has a tight budget to visit their relatives in their province.
"Sa Undas din natin mas nabibigay 'yong pagmamahal...kahit sa isang araw lang nabibigay na natin 'yong isang buong taong pagmamahal natin sa pagpunta or pagdalaw sa mga mahal natin sa buhay," Aristoteles told NewsWatch Plus while paying respects to her dog who recently died in Marikina. "Even nasa kabilang buhay na sila, mas nae-express natin lalo 'yong pagmamahal natin sa kanila."
[Translation: We give more love during Undas. In just a day, we give a year's worth of love when we visit our departed loved ones. Even if they are in the afterlife, we express further our love.]
Others who can't go to cemeteries decided to light candles in their homes instead.
Ruby Prago, a barangay worker, needed to attend to her duties in a pet memorial garden in Marikina, especially during the Undas holidays.
"'Yong mga mahal sa buhay nasa Bulacan, siguro maiitindihan nila ako kung bakit di makauwi," Prago told NewsWatch Plus.
"May time din naman na nagba-bonding-bonding kami dun na walang okasyon, do'n na lang ako makasingit," she added.
[Translation: My loved ones are in Bulacan. I think they can understand why I can't go home. We bond even without occasion, that's the time that I can come.]
