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Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Wenceslao: Of ‘kalag-kalag’ and Halloween
By Bong O. Wenceslao
We visited the graves of the relatives of my wife Edizza at the Pardo cemetery yesterday. Last Sunday, we had the graves of my father Tiyong and my brother-in-law Dodong at the Carreta Cemetery repainted. This has become our ritual every All Saints and all Souls Day since I got married. My wife has been religiously following it.
Years before that, kalag-kalag had a different ring to it. The farmers I lived with had another kind of ritual, one that was fiesta-like. Almost every family slaughtered pigs and chickens and prepared food, a portion of which was placed on the altar and the rest served to guests that came in droves on Nov. 2. People visited the graves on Nov. 1.
It is in this sense that I find the ritual being peddled by malls and department stores, restobars and the media out of this world. Halloween? Trick or treat? Jack-o-lantern? Masks of witches? I could not connect with them because they symbolize the forcible transformation of our kalag-kalag into a commercial and westernized activity.
The Filipino way of commemorating All Saints and All Souls Day hews back to feudal practices and puts premium on respect and remembrance. You visit the grave of your loved one, light candles, pray, then serve food to celebrate both dying and living. Of course, excesses happen in cemeteries now, but they are exceptions rather than the rule.
What malls, restobars and some media people peddle on All Saints and All Souls Day, on the other hand, is fear. The masks, the dark, the eerie sound. Discussions about supposed close encounters with ghosts. Those are designed to instill fear for the dead, which is, of course, un-Filipino. That simply is not the way we view our dear departed.
Or does this mean that my age is showing? Am I holding on to a celebration that is on its way out, replaced permanently by one that is a product of a globalized setup? Will I be seeing my son Edison Khan embrace Halloween instead of the kalag-kalag as he grows up? Should I let go and allow myself to be swept by this “new wave”?
When I was living with the peasants, I criticized the kalag-kalag ritual, especially the spending in the midst of apparent poverty. I failed. Looking back, I realized how deeply those practices have been ingrained on the peasants’ psyche. In the end, the commercial and westernized All Saints and All Souls Day celebration will only win over a chunk of the Filipino elite.
TEXTREAX. From Cris Evert Lato: “Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña may have a way with words, and may well pass a journalism class for his grammar, but I doubt if logical progression is present in his statements.”
(khanwens@yahoo.com/0927-2055064)
(November 2, 2005 issue)
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