Big balls of candlewax, picnics, and other stories

Growing up in the 1980s, the annual event “Todos los Santos” meant going to the cemetery early.

- TONYO CRUZ

The elders would place flowers and light huge candles at the tombs, and bring out the food and drinks for hours of family time.

As far as I remember, it would only be in the late 1990s and the new millennium when we would see big business capitalism enter memorial parks, as if they were always meant to be there. Popup stores of big brands would be a mainstay. Softdrinks, mineral water, pizza, burger, and entire meals, would become available.

I actually no longer remember going to the North Cemetery to visit our grandfather who we never knew. What I still remember was when our great grandmother died and was about to be interred at Manila Memorial Park in Paranaque, our uncles placed a white rectangular box in the same tomb. It would take several years before we finally understood what they meant when they said it contained lolo’s bones.

It wasn’t an easy commute to Paranaque, so it was rare for us to go there every Nov. 1. We went there only a couple of times.

Like others, we would go to church, attend mass, and light candles there. The church color was never black -- always purple. I always wondered why we celebrated the dead on Nov. 1 which is All Saints’ Day, and not on Nov. 2, which is All Souls’ Day.