How to Celebrate All Saints Day in the Philippines

While in many countries, All Saints Day is a solemn holiday set aside to remember the dead, in the Philippines the holiday is a day of festivities. November 1 marks the beginning of the Filipino "Araw ng mgba Patay," the celebration of the Day of the Dead. The celebration continues through the next day, All Souls Day. The two days are traditional Catholic holidays set aside to commemorate all the saints and the souls of the dead. While the holiday remains an important religious day for the Catholic Church, some of the more secular aspects are celebrated by the non-Catholic community. Though the people in the Philippines celebrate and honor the dead joyously, All Saints Day is still a respectful day for commemorating ancestors.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Create a singing group known as pangangaluluwa and go door to door on the eve of All Saints Day. In older days the pangangaluluwa's purpose was to represent the souls of the dead circulating amongst homes in search of prayers and alms. In today's Philippines, singers will perform a verse about the souls' deliverance from purgatory and ask for gifts at the homes they visit.

2. Attend the Catholic liturgy Mass at one of the 13 Roman Catholic churches in the Philippines and say a novena for your deceased ancestors. The prayer is offered in hopes that the dead will be able to find their way through the darkness of purgatory.

3. Join the thousands of Filipino families who decorate their relatives' tombs during the Araw ng mgba Patay. Cemeteries in the Philippines consist mostly of mausoleums instead of grave plots and generations of ancestors are often buried in one tomb. The mausoleums are gaily adorned with balloons and flowers.

4. Celebrate the All Saints Feast in the graveyard. Many people will spend all day "with" their dead, having picnics, playing games and telling stories. In the festive atmosphere, it's not unusual to hear the echoes of children laughing or the clicking of mah jong tiles as people gather together, sitting on the ledges of tombs.

5. Bestow edible gifts of kornik and kropek upon children. The toasted corn nuts and crunchy salted snack foods are often eaten during the celebrations. The tradition of eating and roasting nuts is found in the All Saints Day customs across the world. It's representative of the bounty of the fall harvest which some speculate mirrors the harvesting of souls into Heaven upon this day.

Tips & Warnings

• Kropek is a word referring to a category of snacks as opposed to a specific food.