Today I woke up and called my mom right away, because I know that they would be in our province in Bulacan and would be at the cemetery in the afternoon. It's tradition. We celebrate All Soul's Day, to remember and honor our loved ones and friends who have passed away and are now with Our Creator. I love it because this is one of the holidays where we meet up with our relatives and friends and would just sit together and spend the day or even the night at the cemetery.
My last All Soul's Day in the Philippines was in 2006. Ate Nene, was still with us, and I would never forget that she would be the first and the last person at the cemetery watching over Kuya ( her late husband, my uncle). I remember she made the best, the very best chicken sotanghon. She was a very kind aunt to me. I'm sad that now, she is one of those who we watch over during halloween. =( My Lola who just passed away is also now in her final resting place, this is her first All Soul's Day. I also remember, one of my very good friend Rhea who was murdered when we were 17. i would visit her and give her flowers every Halloween, but now, I could only pray. And how I miss my Lola Inang who raised me when I was small. They have all left us, but memories are alive in our hearts.
I miss buying flowers and candles and cooking for lunch and dinner and eating out at relatives' houses. There's just so many things I miss about home. And it's sad coz where I am right now, the highlight of Halloween would be costume parties, house parties and clubs. I love it too, but I get to thinking when I have kids in the future, I want them to know and feel for themeselves the value and meaning of Halloween, All Saint's Day and All SOul's Day. I don't want to spend it like any other normal day, I don' want to celebrate it with booze or costumes, I want to spend it in prayer, with loved ones, with candles and with flowers and with love for the those who left ahead of us. I want every tradition to be alive, I want it spent with family ties in mind.
Today, I spent the day with Racine, we shared stories about how we used to spend Undas in Pinas over tapsilog and bulalo and bistek tagalog.
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