Aided by ads, Halloween competes with Undas

For generations, Filipinos have honored the tradition of Araw ng Patay, also called Undas, with its gentle customs of laying wreaths and lighting candles, done in reverence and remembrance. In more recent years, Halloween customs promoted by advertising have seeped into the mainstream, with kids in costumes asking for “trick or treat" goodies, done in a curious mix of fright and fun. A casual stroll through malls these days would tend to show that more and more Filipinos are caught up in the Halloween craze, with cobwebs and pumpkins competing with Christmas décor that show up in store displays as early as September 1. While increasing numbers of urban Filipinos this weekend eagerly shop for candy and everything frightful and scary — all in the "spirit" of Halloween of course, making candy stores and costume-makers very happy — a representative of the Catholic bishops is not too pleased. A Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) media officer voiced dismay on Saturday over what he called a “climate of fear" of the dead being generated by Halloween and horror movies. CBCP Commission on Social Communications and Mass Media executive secretary Fr. Francis Lucas said there is no reason to fear the dead. “You have no reason to fear the dead that is portrayed (in the movies) otherwise. They are loved ones and they are in heaven... Our loved ones will not do anything to scare us," Lucas said in an article posted on the CBCP news site. Lucas said that horror movies and mostly western practices associated with Halloween threatened to overshadow the Christian festivals of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days. Medieval roots Halloween's roots can be traced to the Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked summer's end. It was believed that on Samhain, the border between the world of the living and the dead allows spirits to pass through. Christian influence in later centuries led to the pagan practice's evolution into evening rites before All Hallows’ Day—the same feast as All Saints’ Day on November 1. The medieval practices of All Hallows’ evening gradually developed into what is now observed in most English-speaking countries as Halloween, with its emphasis on death, gore, evil, magic, and monsters. The Halloween tradition was introduced into the Philippines by American families during the pre-war US colonial regime. But Filipinos didn't adopt the tradition, except for a handful of upscale neighborhoods which have been celebrating Halloween with organized trick-or-treating for years. In most recent years, however, Halloween rituals like trick or treat and dressing into costumes have spread beyond gated subdivisions and into middle-class schools and offices, encouraged by malls and stores. In many families that merry-making still runs parallel with the Filipino tradition of Undas — or All Saints’ Day on November 1 and All Souls' Day on November 2. Christians marking All Saints' and All Souls' Days believe in a spiritual connection between the living and those who have died "in the state of grace." Filipino families faithful to this tradition reunite at the graves of their loved ones in day-long picnics and often-overnight vigils — sometimes as solemnly as Christian doctrine requires, sometimes as happily as the American Thanksgiving tradition, and sometimes as steeped in morbid revelry as Halloween. For his part, CBCP’s Fr. Lucas reminded the Christian faithful that it does not matter where people pray to commemorate their departed family members as long as they remember to pray for their souls. Millions of Filipinos started traveling to their home provinces and flocking to cemeteries as early as Friday, October 29, intending to stay there for an entire day, overnight, or all the way to Monday, November 1. Others were already home for the barangay elections last October 25 or, for students, semestral break. With bus terminals, seaports and expressway toll plazas crowded with Undas travelers bearing candles, flowers, and hopes of meeting once again missed relatives both living and dead, the Catholic church apparently has little to worry about for now. As with many western traditions adopted by Filipinos, beneath the surface lie age-old beliefs that die hard.—With Carmela Lapeña/JV/HS, GMANews.TV