All Saints Day In The Philippines

Commemorating our dead loved ones are supposed to be solemn and formal, but in the Philippines, it is a day for festivities. The Filipinos call it “Araw ng mga Patay”. It is a traditional Catholic holiday where people visit the graveyards and offer flowers and light candles. The Philippines have their own way of celebrating this occasion. It is a day of joyous celebration and festivities. Though so, Filipinos celebrate it in a respectful manner.

The following are the ways on how people celebrate their All Saints Day in the Philippines. This will give us more idea of how people celebrate this special day:

• During the eve of the All Saints Day, people have their singing groups where in the go out and do door to door singing. This symbolizes the spirits of the dead that are said to be circulating around homes. There are certain songs that people sing during this evening. The songs are about the deliverance of the souls from the purgatory. The people from houses will then give gifts to the singers.
• Another thing Filipinos do during All Saints Day is attend the Catholic liturgy mass. There are novenas held in churches that are offered to their departed loved ones. These prayers are said to help the souls make their way to heaven.
• One of the major activities that the Filipinos do during All Saints Day is joining their families in the cemetery. Most of them decorate the tombs of their deceased loved ones. During this day, the tombs are decorated with colorful balloons and flowers.
• During the day of the occasion, all of the Philippine cemeteries are very crowded with people. They stay on the graveyard for the entire day. They even hold parties and picnics inside the cemetery where in they serve lots of foods. Others will even stay in for the night and light lots of glimmering candles around the graveyard. People are mostly seen playing mah jong together which a popular game for the elderly in the Philippines. The day is spent with echoes of people that are laughing and stories that they have when the deceased family members were still alive.
• Another Philippine tradition is bestowing gifts and other refreshments for children. It is the feast of toasted nuts, corns and other crunchy snacks. The eating of toasted and crunchy foods during All Saints Day has been a tradition for most countries in the world. It is said to represent the gift of the fall harvest. Some say that it is when the heavens harvested the souls of the departed.

This unique way of celebrating All Saints Day by the Filipinos has been very popular around the world. The country is seen in its most colorful ways during this death-commemorating occasion.