As a kid, Halloween was a special event that I only read in books and saw in American TV shows. We did not dress up every Oct 31st. We did not go home with a jack-o-lantern pail full of treats. What I have are memories of Undas or All Saint Day. Unlike most families who visit their dead relatives in the cemetery in the afternoon of November 1, our family sleeps in the cemetery the day before. I don’t have memories of trick or treating but we’d go from plot to plot and collect melted candles which we later turn into a big ball of candle wax. The bigger the better of course. Most of all, Undas to our family is the day when we get together.
Last November 1st, Aki got his first taste of Undas, the Nevalga Family way. This year is also Jyl and Rock’s first time to sleep in a cemetery. Hopefully, next year, we can sleep there too. We left our house before dawn. By 6:30AM, we were already in Calamba. I learned that my other pamangkins and cousins, had actually just got home a couple of hours before us. They had a grand time in the perya! Oh, my memories of getting scared as hell inside the horror train. Good times! I can’t wait to bring Aki to a perya.
It was a bright sunny day in panchong (cemetery)
This is how we roll. One side of our family musoleo is for the kids.
The other side is for the tanders. This is also were we eat and where we receive our guests.
Staple food every All Saints’ are suman, adobo and tapang Taal.
My only concern with our musoleo is that our location gets really hot midday even with the sliding windows, thick curtains and air cooler. Oh yes, the family musoleo really is like a mini-house. That is how my grandmother wanted it to be.
The boys were so at home in the cemetery that they even had siesta.
Meet my family.
This is my nephew Nico. The last I saw him was 2 years ago.
Mama Elout. She is my dad’s sister. She is based in the US but goes home every year for Undas. In my paternal side of the family, we don’t use Lolo and Lola. We only use Mama and Papa. Since Mama Ogie passed away, Mama Elout has been the matriarch of our family.