All Saints’ Day in the Highlands

Monday, November 7, 2011

ONE OF the many rare Sagadan customs is the local version of the All Saints’ Day celebration. If most people normally light candles on the tombs of the departed, the Sagada villagers transform the whole cemetery into a smoldering hill.

Aptly dubbed as the Festival of Lights by bloggers and travel brochures, Sagadans honor their dead by setting fire on bundles of pine redwood or “saeng” in the local lingo. This tradition started decades ago when the pioneer Christians of the community deemed it more practical to use pinewood instead of candles. Candles would after all be useless against the winds of the pine-laden hills of the locality.

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A mass at the Episcopalian Church of St. Mary the Virgin is held before the ceremonial burning. At around 5o’clock in the afternoon, people start lighting up their bundles while the priests roam around to bless all the tombs. A few minutes after the first fires are lit; the whole slope of the mountain is ablaze. Thick columns of smoke billow from these dozens of bonfires as that unmistakable smell of sap sizzling from the redwoods mingles with the earthy scent of the place.

From afar, the place would look like a scene from a horror movie wherein an entire place is devastated by huge balls of fire. For someone who is in the cemetery itself however, he or she can surely attest that the environment is far from horrific. You can hear peals of laughter from almost every corner as the people likewise take this opportunity to reunite with relatives whom they haven’t seen for a long time. Although the atmosphere can be perceived as boisterous and even rowdy at some point for others, the essence and solemnity of the whole affair is not lost to the locals. Their very own version of “Pinag-aapoy” is the Sagadans way of showing their deep reverence for the dead. For a couple of hours, they brave the colds and nasty winds of the first day of November as they attempt to warm the resting places of those who passed away.

This practice has become an added fascination to the tourists as well. But it’s really noteworthy that the locals keep on observing this simply because of tradition—meaning this is not staged just to satisfy the visitors’ thirst for that ‘otherness’ experience which they tend to revel in.

At the end of the day, of course it’s a given. Those who participated in the event go home with the soot, smoky smells and blackened nostrils. But with such a sight beheld — definitely all worth it.