November 1st is
All Saints Day here in the Philippines. On All Saints Day it's traditional to visit the cemeteries and pay homage to the dearly departed. The usually solemn cemetery takes on a party atmosphere, with much merry-making rather than a solemn celebration. We visited the mausoleums of Aimee's Grandparents.
The mausoleum was fitted with tents and chairs to make it more comfortable for us to spend the day there.
All Saints Day is a perfect opportunity for families to get together, have a reunion, relax, and talk about the past.
We even found time to...
...fly a kite.
A Chinese custom is to burn money. Not real money, but fake money. I've heard people call it 'paper money', 'heaven money' or even 'hell money'. It's estenially money the departed can spend in the afterlife. Here you see some of the family's drivers burning the money.
It's hard to tell from this photo but these people have created a picnic area around their dearly departed's gravestone. Tents are set up, chairs are brought in, blankets are used, people even start cooking food in the graveyard. I was shocked when I saw bubble tea stands, pizza stands and other food kiosk stands setup around the graveyard. While we were eating our lunch at the mausoleum, various musicians walked up, sat down and started singing pop songs. They would play, finish the song, wait for a donation then leave. The one thing that surprised me the most was when a salesman for the graveyard came up and tried to sell the family more plots of land for the future dearly departed. I thought this was in bad taste but everyone else thought it was a normal occurrance for the day. ...Things are different here. :)
The mausoleum was fitted with tents and chairs to make it more comfortable for us to spend the day there. All Saints Day is a perfect opportunity for families to get together, have a reunion, relax, and talk about the past.
We even found time to...
...fly a kite.
A Chinese custom is to burn money. Not real money, but fake money. I've heard people call it 'paper money', 'heaven money' or even 'hell money'. It's estenially money the departed can spend in the afterlife. Here you see some of the family's drivers burning the money.
It's hard to tell from this photo but these people have created a picnic area around their dearly departed's gravestone. Tents are set up, chairs are brought in, blankets are used, people even start cooking food in the graveyard. I was shocked when I saw bubble tea stands, pizza stands and other food kiosk stands setup around the graveyard. While we were eating our lunch at the mausoleum, various musicians walked up, sat down and started singing pop songs. They would play, finish the song, wait for a donation then leave. The one thing that surprised me the most was when a salesman for the graveyard came up and tried to sell the family more plots of land for the future dearly departed. I thought this was in bad taste but everyone else thought it was a normal occurrance for the day. ...Things are different here. :)
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