Before celebrating Christmas fully, Filipinos need to go through the “kalagkalag” ritual first. This is the setup that actually put to question the claim that we celebrate the longest Christmas season because we start it in the “ber” months, or in September. Filipinos actually start thinking about Christmas after the “kalagkalag.”
The Philippines celebrates All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days differently as far as the highlands and the lowlands are concerned. Mountain folk have continued to follow the old ways while lowland folk have been influenced by Western and modern ways. That is why some lowland folk nowadays talk about “Halloween,” a very Western tradition.
In Cebu, mountain folk prepare for the “kalagkalag” virtually the day after. The pigs that they slaughter for the “kalagkalag” are bought days after the celebration, fed until they are slaughtered for next year’s “kalagkalag.” Those without money to do so buy a few kilos of meat from their neighbors. Every house, therefore, prepares something for expected visitors, many of them their relatives now living in the lowlands.
But the prepared food is not eaten on Nov. 1. On that day, some of the food is placed on the altar as offerings to departed souls. Respected folk do the offering using salt-less food and leaves that they digest while chanting old prayers. It is only after the food is offered to the souls on Nov. 1 that this is eaten on Nov. 2. On that day also, visitors begin to trickle in. And they usually go home with some of the delicacies, like “budbud,” and fruits like mangoes, bananas, etc.
In the lowlands, cemeteries are full on Nov. 1 although the sprucing up of tombs and mausoleums start days before that. People bring food, some of this “offered” while the rest is eaten. Others even bring in liquor and other drinks although government and law enforcers have banned their entry to cemeteries. The festive atmosphere is only observed on Nov. 1 although some people still go to the cemeteries the next day.
We do not celebrate “Halloween” even if some West-influenced folk insist on holding costume parties and doing the “trick or treat” routine. But Filipinos now living abroad follow the traditions in the countries where they are now in. The others still do it the traditional Filipino way, though.
Whatever you do, bear in mind that Filipinos celebrate “kalagkalag” out of respect for our dear departed. That is why I frown at television shows that make horror films during “kalagkalag.” They don’t respect the dead but instead make a spectacle out of them. Which is sad.
I have seen on Facebook photos of the spruced up graves of my father and other departed relatives. I remember the times when my father and mother and my older sister were still alive. That I say, is the function of the celebration: to remember. We pray for our dear departed, true, but we also remember the good old days when they were with us. And then we are reminded that life is fleeting and because of that we should do the good things when we can and not procrastinate.