I’m not afraid of dying I don’t know how it feels for the moment
I’m prepared for death because I don’t believe in it
I think it’s just getting out of the wrong car and into another…
- John Winston Lennon
I LIKE that concept of John Lennon treating a serious and morbid final episode into something light with a touch of his usual sarcasm just like the usual Ilonggo Fiesta Minatay in Christ the King Memorial Park complete with pizza and cold beer.
Fiesta Minatay is an Ilonggo tradition and the atmosphere has always been festive, a real fiesta so to speak, with food and drinks. Perhaps the only peculiar thing is the setting of the fiesta – the cemetery.
But what really is Fiesta Minatay? It’s just the Ilonggo version of the tradition Dia de Muertos or Day of the Dead which incidentally happens today, Nov. 1.
In the calendar of Catholic holidays Nov. 1 is really All Saints’ Day while Nov. 2 is the real All Souls’ Day. But custom has it that we celebrate or commemorate Fiesta Minatay on Nov. 1; the following day, Nov. 2, seems like an afterthought; really it’s a “hangover day” as we were all drunk on Fiesta Minatay.
Let’s check out the origins of Fiesta Minatay from that free online encyclopedia a.k.a. the internet:
Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico, in particular the Central and South regions, and by people of Mexican ancestry living in other places, especially the United States. It is acknowledged internationally in many other cultures. The multi-day holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died, and help support their spiritual journey. In 2008, the tradition was inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
The holiday is sometimes called Día de los Muertos in Anglophone countries, a back-translation of its original name, Día de Muertos. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico where the day is a public holiday. Prior to Spanish colonization in the 16th century, the celebration took place at the beginning of summer. Gradually, it was associated with Oct. 31, Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 to coincide with the Western Christian triduum of Allhallowtide: All Saints’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day. Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called ofrendas, honouring the deceased using calaveras, Aztec marigolds, and the favourite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts. Visitors also leave possessions of the deceased at the graves.
While ancestor veneration is an ancient part of Filipino culture, the modern observance is believed to have been imported from Mexico when the islands (as part of the Spanish East Indies) were governed from Mexico City as part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain During the holiday (observed on the 1st day of November), Filipinos customarily visit family tombs and other graves, which they repair and clean. Entire families spend a night or two at their loved ones’ tombs, passing time with card games, eating, drinking, singing and dancing. Prayers such as the rosary are often said for the deceased, who are normally offered candles, flowers, food, and even liquor. Some Catholic Filipino families additionally offer joss sticks to the dead, and observe customs otherwise associated with the Hungry Ghost Festival.
As you can see, the drinking, eating and the festive atmosphere in our cemeteries during Fiesta Minatay is part and parcel of Filipino traditions that date back even before the Spanish came to these islands.
What the Spaniards did was to formalize it and include Fiesta Minatay as one of the religious holidays after the archipelago was Christianized; it became the “Filipinized” Dia de Muertos.
Until recently there has always been revelry in the cemeteries as day turns to evening every Fiesta Minatay. The Coleman coolers filled with ice cold beer and a few bottles of rhum or brandy is as de rigour as the esperma or candles and flower arrangements the family will bring to the cemetery.
Now alcoholic drinks are banned in cemeteries so what do they expect the people to drink? Kool-Aid probably. In the Filipino tradition it’s not really a fiesta if there are no alcoholic drinks.
Since that alcohol ban, Fiesta Minatay has never been the same anymore.
And what better way to end our little story about Fiesta Minatay than these lines from that film Phantom of the Paradise:
All souls last forever
So we need never fear goodbye
A kiss when I must go…
No tears…
In time…
We kiss hello… (glendz09@yahoo.com/PN)
