Millions of people across the Philippines packed into cemeteries yesterday to pay respects to their deceased loved ones, in an annual tradition that combines Catholic religious rites with the country’s penchant for festivity.
The Catholic Church appealed for a solemn, prayerful observation of the “day of the dead,” or All Saints’ Day, and urged against turning grave sites into picnic spots.
Police set up frisking booths at cemetery gates to confiscate alcoholic beverages, playing cards, portable karaoke machines and weapons as huge crowds, including children and the elderly, endured slow-moving lines.
Photo: EPA
“It is very important for Filipinos to pay respects to their dead. This is also a chance for a family reunion,” 21-year-old government worker Mary Joy Pasigan told reporters at a cemetery north of Manila.
Pasigan carried her five-year-old niece past cramped corridors of tombs to offer sunflowers and orchids to her deceased grandparents.
Conchita Pura, 60, brought sandwiches for her two-hour vigil at the tombs of her aunt and uncle.
“We come here to light candles and offer prayers so that their sins may be forgiven,” she said. “Getting here is painful, but I must endure it to observe tradition.”
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said praying for the dead was a “duty” as it appealed to Catholics to “bring back the holy.”
Instead of engaging in Western-style Halloween celebrations and dressing up as vampires and monsters, Catholics should consider posing as saints, the conference said in a statement.
However, at the Manila North Cemetery, the mood was more festive than solemn as popular fast-food chains set up carts selling roasted pig, dim sum, noodles, fried chicken and steamed pork buns.
The annual pilgrimage to the cemeteries also triggers a mass exodus from Manila, when tens of thousands travel to interior provinces where their relatives are buried.
Police have been on the highest alert level since Thursday to secure cemeteries and transport terminals.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III inspected the capital’s sea, air and bus terminals on Friday and ordered authorities to remain vigilant, spokeswoman Abigail Valte told state-run radio DZRB
“[Aquino] will spend the weekend monitoring their updates to ensure the safety of commuters who will visit the graves of their loved ones in the provinces,” Valte said.
JAN. 1 CLAUSE: As military service is voluntary, applications for permission to stay abroad for over three months for men up to age 45 must, in principle, be granted A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has triggered an uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime. The legislation, which went into effect on Jan. 1 aims to bolster the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription. If the “modernized” model fails to pull in enough recruits, parliament will be compelled to discuss the reintroduction of compulsory service, German
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
Filipino farmers like Romeo Wagayan have been left with little choice but to let their vegetables rot in the field rather than sell them at a loss, as rising oil prices linked to the Iran war drive up the cost of harvesting, labor and transport. “There’s nothing we can do,” said Wagayan, a 57-year old vegetable farmer in the northern Philippine province of Benguet. “If we harvest it, our losses only increase because of labor, transportation and packing costs. We don’t earn anything from it. That’s why we decided not to harvest at all,” he said. Soaring costs caused by the Middle East
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s officially declared wealth is fairly modest: some savings and a jointly owned villa in Budapest. However, voters in what Transparency International deems the EU’s most corrupt country believe otherwise — and they might make Orban pay in a general election this Sunday that could spell an end to his 16-year rule. The wealth amassed by Orban’s inner circle is fueling the increasingly palpable frustration of a population grappling with sluggish growth, high inflation and worsening public services. “The government’s communication machine worked well as long as our economic situation remained relatively good,” said Zoltan Ranschburg, a political analyst
RSS