Paoay folk mark 2 feasts of the dead

PAOAY, Ilocos Norte—Residents here have been mounting two kinds of feasts for the dead: One for their late relatives at daytime, the other for the town’s dead after dark.

Residents normally visit their dead in cemeteries in the morning and leave the tombstones when night falls because public cemetery grounds are poorly lit.

Only those with privately lit burial grounds stay longer to spend more time with their departed and for a few bottles of beer with friends.

But the Day of the Dead does not end there. After leaving the cemetery, the second All Saints’ Day memorial awaits residents at the town center where private compounds are virtually converted into mock burial grounds.

The town’s traditional feast of the dead is called Tumba (to fall). It has been generating a bigger crowd year after year with the infusion of modern day Halloween motifs to attract the young and, in the process, continue the tradition they inherited from their elders.

Luz Reyno-Carpio, the town’s tourism officer, said Tumba has been celebrated for generations to honor the dead.

No records explain why old folk called the event Tumba, although some residents deduce that it literally means to eternally fall.

A typical Tumba is staged at a village hall, with a coffin placed at the center of the room, adorned with native rice cakes, wine and cigar. These items are known as offerings to the dead.

Mock wakes

To complete the atmosphere of a wake, a group of grieving women perform the dung-aw (Ilocano chant performed at funerals). Those who want their Tumba to be more realistic would include a man pretending to be dead inside the coffin.

“In the past, mock wakes and graves are set up in every village so that folk could visit them any time,” Carpio said.

As years went by, Tumba sites had been moved around the town hall and rewards were given to organizers who came up with the most elaborate mock wake.

This year, town officials have made the Tumba a two-day festival beginning Nov. 1 to take advantage of droves of tourists visiting the province for the four-day weekend.

The ruins of an old Catholic convent beside Paoay Church was converted into a horror house to attract thrill-seeking youths. Traffic crawled along the town center on Thursday night due to dozens of vehicles and tourists occupying the streets where Tumba grounds were located.

The provincial government provided free shuttle bus rides to tourists and visitors from other Ilocos Norte towns who participated in the traditional events.