The long holiday weekend
In the midweek, those who went to their respective towns and provinces to pay their respects to their dear departed on All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days for an extended weekend holiday that ended Tuesday came trooping back to the city.
The thousands of others who stayed here refurbished the graves and tombs of their own departed, filling our various public and public cemeteries to hold vigils with lighted candles and prayers, bonding also, as they did, with family and relatives.
Now that we are back to everyday concerns of living, working and studying, among others, we catch up with events around us in media reports.
The young ones celebrated Halloween last Monday night dressed in various “horror” costumes with masks at parties decorated with cut-out or artificial jack-o-lanterns andx witches in the secularized or even early pagan celebration that the Christian Church has solemnized into the religious All Hallows’ Eve observance.
The other year, when I spent this season with my children in the States, one of my grandchildren happily participated in the Halloween trick-or-treat visits to houses in the neighborhood with a bag to hold the “treat” goodies given them. Another year, I remember a daughter-in-law preparing candy treats for trick-or-treaters during Halloween. While another year in San Diego, I remember plots would be filled with golden pumpkins for sale to be converted into carved, lighted grinning jack-o’-lanterns days before Halloween. Memories. Now my grandchildren in the States are grown-up.
Now back to the present, how ironic that the pre-All-Saints’ and -All-Souls’ Days this year (our Kalag-kalag/Adlaw sa mga Minatay) should be preceeded by a number of tragic deaths, the latest being those of Ramgen Bautista popularly known as the young Ramon Revilla, a half-brother of Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., and of Ricky Pempengco, father of young internationally acclaimed singing star Charice Pempengco. And how disturbing, too, the reports now surfacing that, allegedly, things were not well within the families of both high-profile personalities, the one dying under violent circumstances, and the other rising above it all to laudable success yet still returning to grieve over the death of an estranged father.
Thank God for the fatherly presence through all these days of our new Archbishop Jose Palma. Before the secularized Halloween merrymaking, he gently reminded us of the sacred significance of All Hallows’ Eve. And on the recent tragic deaths of the relatives of two popular personalities, he was there to condole with the bereaved and offer prayers for the souls of the tragic victims.
Even before these, his quiet shepherdly presence in religious and secular activities has helped tone down some of our hectic modern daily activities, as in these “ghost-busting” days against corruption in money by top officials and businessmen.
In the hullabaloo over the proposed and projected additional flyovers in the city, objections, protests, petitions and even prayers, as well as studied opinions from experts, have finally been heard. The Department of Public Works and Highways has finally suspended this project, thank goodness. Reason and sanity have prevailed.
Now, let us consider the weather and the havoc the current “inconvenient truth” about global warming continues to plague the world, particularly our country with past floods, some still unabated but especially the hot, humid days we are sweating through. Ironically, at this same time, parts of the northeastern United States are plowing through a snowstorm! Health authorities have been warning, cautioning us against the current health hazards in flu, colds and disease so let us take the necessary precautions.
Some of the activities that helped keep me grounded through these days is my membership in a couple of civic organizations. Saturday last week, we held our Cebu Girl Scouts Executive Committee meeting to assess our activities last month.
Our 2011 Search for the Cebu City Model Girl Scout yielded two on the Star Level from the Mabolo Elementary School; one each on the Junior Level from Mabolo and Guadalupe Elementary Schools and Bulacao Community School; five on the Senior Level, all from the Cebu City National Science High School (CCNSHS) and five on the Cadet Level, also from the CCNSHS. They were awarded on Oct. 26th at the Sinulog Hall of the Rizal Memorial Library and Museum.
This activity was followed on Oct. 21st through the 26th with the 2011 Regional Junior, Senior and Cadet Encampment at Camp Marina, Capitol Hills, with the theme, “Girls’ potentials and empowerment will change the world.” Participants were Girl Scouts on the Junior, Senior and Cadet levels, with awards for projects on all levels, as well as for the Biggest Delegation.
At that Execom meeting, we discussed plans for the forthcoming Chief Girl Scout Medal Pesentation Ceremonies on Nov. 14th at the Plenary Hall of the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City. Awards will be given for projects in Health, Ecology and Livelihood. I hope to mention all these and the aforementioned awardees in later columns.
Before I close, today, Nov. 4th, the Bohol Provincial Government celebrates the 115th birth anniversary of the late president Carlos P. Garcia, fourth president of the Republic of the Philippines. Yesterday, Nov. 3 was the memorial of St. Martin de Porres. Then Nov. 7th, Monday next week has been declared by Malacañang as a regular national holiday to celebrate Eid’l Adha or the “Festival of Sacrifice” for Muslims to commemorate the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God, before God relented and gave him a ram to sacrifice instead.
Until next week, now, may God continue to bless us, one and all!
