BONG WENCESLAO:

Wenceslao cites the cultural tug and pull between the western Halloween and the Filipino “kalag-kalag.” Will we succumb to the western practice the way we yield to the lure of blonde hair? Fortunately, he says, there is resistance, especially in suburban and rural areas where the traditional “kalag-kalag” still rules. People go out to the cemeteries to clear the graveyards of loved ones for the annual visit. There is no way that the Halloween and the “kalag-kalag” can co-exist, Wenceslao believes, especially because of their contrasting ways at looking at death.

You will know that All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day is just around the bend when ugly masks and costume get displayed in malls and many media outlets begin spreading fear with shows on ghouls and zombies. The effort by some sectors to ape the western practice of Halloween and supplant the Filipino tradition of “kalag-kalag” continues. Will we succumb to it like we have succumbed to the lure of dyeing our hair blonde?

Fortunately, there has been a resistance, especially in suburban and rural areas, where “kalag-kalag,” not Halloween, still rules. And in the urban areas, the “masa” has remained steadfast to tradition, unlike the elite and those steeped in western culture. They are even now out there in cemeteries clearing the graves of their loved ones, preparing them for the annual visit and saying of prayers.

Somebody once chided me for not letting those celebrating Halloween be. After all, everybody is free to do what he or she likes in this country. Let’s commemorate both Halloween and “kalag-kalag.” But can the two co-exist?

My take is no (although anybody can contradict me on this). For me, Halloween and “kalag-kalag” start from two different premises in dealing with the departed. Halloween is all about the “macabre and the monstrous” and is too commercialized. I think that is mainly the reason the Halloween celebration is being pushed here. To sell the merchandise that are being sold in malls.

But there are also those who honestly fell for Halloween’s celebratory mood. Even our colleagues in the media now believe that the “kalag-kalag” coverage won’t be complete without tackling the surreal. They always serve a dish of roaming souls here and “dili ingon nato” there. The thinking is that sowing fear could push up the ratings during the season.

Those practices, I would say, are diametrically opposed to the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day celebrations I grew up with and continue to do until now. The main point of the “kalag-kalag” is remembrance and respect and not about the “macabre and the monstrous.” We do not instill fear of the dead or our dearly departed during “kalag-kalag.” Rather, we remember them with reverence.

And I didn’t know how elaborate our ancestors celebrated the “kalag-kalag” until I stayed in the countryside for around seven years. In the mountain barangays of Cebu City, “kalag-kalag” eclipses the fiesta as an annual event. Pigs are slaughtered and cooked and other food added as offering to the souls of dead relatives and later for the living (relatives who come visiting on All Souls’ Day). That after they go to the cemeteries for the usual grave visitations.

That’s why I don’t want to see the day when the “kalag-kalag” celebration is drowned by Halloween practices like what is being dealt now by Christians in the west. There’s this report in theguardian.com about how the Church of England is battling the onslaught of Halloween. It’s advice to its parishes is to stage light parties wherein the participants are told to wear superhero instead of scary costumes.

But we need not go to that stage if we continue to promote our own “kalag-kalag” tradition.