Undas!

“All Souls’ day and all Saints’ day” is celebrated here on October 31 and November 1st. We don’t have Halloween but have our own traditions regarding the dead.

Filipinos flock to the cemeteries to remember their dead on the aforementioned dates. The Catholics light candles atop the grave of their beloved dead relatives (Some ritual they practice – sorry I’m not familiar with it since I’ve never been Catholic). We once used to visit a cemetery nearby just for the fun of it since our dead relatives are buried up north, six-hours drive away and we can’t go there, we just visit the dead of other people we don’t even know.

The last time we went there, we got chased by geese. First, there was just one goose and I thought I wanted to acquaint with it and call it out like I would a dog – BAD IDEA! I guess, it was insulted, I mean, it’s a duck. It started honking and maybe honked to the others too. It wasn’t long before there were a horde of them marching towards us, honking madly!

My dad, my knight in shining white T-shirt and short faced them bravely, bravely behind my wheelchair – “well, thanks dad.” He started shooing them and threatening them USING ME! “There goes my protection.”

They chased us for a few minutes but we managed to get away. We never went back after that – haha! But there’s been talk of returning lately because of a news item they heard on TV….

I'm not kidding, this conversation really took place in my house.