Columnist recalls childhood All Saints' Days and weighs cemetery visits amid pandemic

A Mindanao Times columnist reflects on how the first two days of November felt to children growing up on Ponciano Street, remembering them as solemn and, for a young child, frightening.

The writer recalls living in a grandparents' house with no television, where children had to listen to whatever radio programs the adults chose. In the evenings, the grownups would tune in to the horror program "Gabi ng Lagim (Night of Horror)," and the columnist remembers sitting frozen on the sofa with hands over ears while household helpers and boarders looked on with amusement. The writer says they have long wondered why adults enjoyed scaring children during these days.

The column contrasts that experience with the animated film "Coco," which depicts the Mexican tradition of honoring the dead and which the writer describes as not scary at all and very different from the local practice. The columnist also notes that while cemetery visits on these days are a tradition, the church considers them days when the faithful should hear Mass.

Turning to the present, the writer argues that the pandemic is a far greater threat than any ghost, and poses a pointed question to readers: is visiting the dead in cemeteries worth the risk of joining them?

The column closes with a list of departed family members, among them Mama Pin, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and a grandchild, Andrea Elise. The writer says that while these may be mere names to readers, "they comprise the finest parts of me."