Due to the pandemic, for the first time all cemeteries have
been closed for the annual celebration of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day so
we couldn’t even come close to the graves of our loved ones. The visits could only take
place before and after November 1 and 2 to prevent a big crowd from taking
place.
But in lighting candles, not beside their graves, we might also wish to remember our ancestors who were here centuries ago.
Prior to the introduction of Christianty to native Filipinos, we might ask how did our forefathers treat their dead? Antonio de Morga who was a Spanish soldier,
lawyer, and a high ranking colonial official who stayed in the country for 43
years (1594 to 1604). Best known for his early historical writings on the
Philippines, he wrote in Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas:
“They buried their dead in their own houses, and kept their bodies and bones for a long time in chests. They venerated the skulls of the dead as if they were living and present. Their funeral rites did not consist of pomp or assemblages, beyond those of their own house—where, after bewailing the dead, all was changed into feasting and drunken revelry among all the relatives and friends.”
But Rizal, our national hero had much more to say,
apparently based on the historical accounts of the Jesuit Francisco Colin, one
of the pioneers in the Philippine missions:
“In the Filipino burials, there were mourners who composed panegyrics in honor of the dead, like those made today. “To the sound of this sad music the corpse was washed, and perfumed with storax, gum-resin, or other perfumes made from tree gums, which are found in all these woods.
“Then the corpse was shrouded, being wrapped in more or less cloth according to the rank of the deceased. The bodies of the more wealthy were anointed and embalmed in the manner of the Hebrews, with aromatic liquors, which preserved them from decay.... The burial-place of the poor was in pits dug in the ground under their own houses.
“ After the bodies of the rich and powerful were kept and bewailed for three days, they were placed in a chest or coffin of incorruptible wood, adorned with rich jewels, and with small sheets of gold in the mouth and over the eyes. The coffin was all in one piece, and the lid was so adjusted that no air could enter. Because of these precautions the bodies have been found after many years, still uncorrupted.
“These coffins were deposited in one of three places, according to the inclination and arrangement of the deceased, either on top of the house among the treasures ... or underneath it, but raised from the ground; or in the ground itself, in an open hole surrounded with a small railing ... nearby they were wont to place another box filled with the best clothes of the deceased; and at meal-time they set various articles of food there in dishes.
“Beside the men were laid their weapons, and beside the women their looms or other implements of work” (Colin).—Rizal.”
