Undas: Honoring saints and souls?

It was still the afternoon of October 30 but already, there was heavy traffic along roads that led to cemeteries. Many have started to visit their dead earlier, perhaps to avoid worse traffic by November 1, All Saints’ Day, and November 2, All Souls’ Day.

Filipinos in general honor their dead by visiting them in the cemeteries, lighting candles, offering flowers and prayers, some even having Masses offered and attended by family, relatives, and close friends.

Although November 1 is a celebration honoring all saints, Filipinos have been used to starting their commemoration of their dead on the Feast of All Saints, earlier than November 2.

Filipinos look forward to these first two days of November (collectively referred to as undas) to travel back to their hometowns for a much-awaited reunion of their families, both the living members and the departed.

Undas is the time of the year when cemeteries which are usually very silent and empty during most part of the year, come alive with thousands of visiting kin with their offerings of food/flowers/music, and more.

This is the time of the year when the living outnumber the dead, when the silence of the dead is overpowered by the noise and din of the living.

Although close to cooler November and cold December, it is springtime during undas, with flowers of every kind, color, and scent gracing graves throughout cemeteries.

Fiesta mode is palpable everywhere, inside/outside of cemeteries where vendors of all sorts are busy peddling their wares, from flowers to candles, to water, to food, others more.

Families and visitors treat themselves to the bountiful prepared food, drink, and other treats. There will be music and singing, laughter and banter as well.

In contrast to the happy undas “revelers”, traffic enforcers and police are busy keeping order in the streets, alert to thieves and pickpockets busy mingling with the undas crowd.

Among the cemetery visitors, there are even the enterprising who pose as priests ready to bless the graves, for a fee.

Have you also observed families clean up, paint the tombs of their dead months or days before undas?

Have you also noticed how, after their visits, families leave their litter and basura which literally transform cemeteries/memorial parks overnight into pools of dirty, filthy garbage?

Aren’t the undas crowd there to honor God, the saints, and their dead? Then why do they leave behind their basura with their dead and their graves?

If families love their dead, should they not protect/keep the homes of their dead loved ones clean?

Shouldn’t there be rules for the living to maintain the cleanliness of the cemeteries and parks that house their beloved departed?

Can there be assigned personnel, designated areas for segregated waste, to guide all cemetery visitors to properly manage their basura during the undas?

Will local government strictly apply, during undas, the no-littering rule where the dead are buried, not only to honor the dead, but to honor and protect the living --the visitors and God’s environment both for the living and the dead?

Like Sinulog and all other big events with big crowds, will cemeteries and memorial parks be a sea of basura when the last living visitor exits from the home of the dead?

Oh, if only the dead will rise and knock some eco-friendly sense among their undas visitors! What a wonderful world this will be, both for the living and the dead! Let us see how this year’s undas will proceed.

What do you think? Will visitors truly honor God, their saints and departed by not leaving their trash behind, by not desecrating cemeteries, memorial parks, and the environment?

Can you be among those who will heed the call for all to keep the homes of the living and the dead clean/respected?