‘Stampita’ brings saints back to kids

THIS STAMPITA, that would be given on All Saints’ Day in Angeles City, promotes the lives of saints and revives devotion among the faithful.

PAMPANGA, Philippines—Colorfully illustrated stampita (prayer cards) are the latest addition to local efforts to make All Saints’ Day in Angeles City more of a Catholic holy day.

The prayers cards are exclusively made for more than 600 students who are dressing up like the holy and martyred men and women of the Roman Catholic Church, instead of donning costumes of ghouls, ghosts, vampires, monsters and demons for the Halloween event in the city.

The prayer in the card was given by Msgr. Eugene Reyes while the illustrations were made by Bryan Paguio.

The lives of saints have increasingly been the focus of All Saints’ Day at the Holy Rosary Parish in Angeles City through Bishop Pablo Virgilio David beginning 2011 and at nearby Holy Angel University (HAU) since 2012.

Robert Tantingco, executive director of HAU’s Center for Kapampangan Studies (CKS), said this was because the original intent of Halloween was to celebrate the saints, not the devils, since it’s the night before All Saints’ Day.

“Halloween is short for Hallows’ Eve, and hallows is old English for saints,” he said. Catholics have around 10,000 saints, according to the the website catholic.org.

Stampita, said Tantingco, are prayer cards commemorating feast days or religious events. These are distributed to the faithful as mementos or souvenirs.

In effect, the devotion to saints is revived.

What HAU retained is the “trick or treat” part of the western rite.

Children go the rounds of offices, receiving chocolates, candies or fruits.

Hymn to saints

Aside from distributing stampita, the center and HAU’s Institute for Christian Formation are also teaching children to sing the “gosu” or traditional Kapampangan hymn to saints.

In Pampanga province, the seat of the Augustinian mission starting 1572, there is a gosu for every patron saint of towns and cities.

There’s a hymn for St. Lucy in Sasmuan town, St. Bartholomew in Magalang town, St. Andrew in Candaba town, St. Catherine in Porac and Arayat towns, St. Isidore in the village of Dau in Mabalacat City, St. Nicholas in Macabebe town, St. James in the community of Betis in Guagua town and St. Michael in Masantol town.

Kapampangan, who converted into Christianity during Spanish colonial times, practiced the magguso by going from one house to another, singing and receiving either money, live chicken or vegetables. The money is used to buy candles for the dead.

The gosu, Tantingco said, is like the “pamangaladua.” In singing the gosu, the faithful ask a saint to help bring eternal peace to a departed loved one. The pamangaladua, on the other hand, prays for the soul of dead members in a family.

“It’s a very touching gesture of communal spirit where neighbors or strangers offer prayer and entertainment to ease the household’s grief or longing for a lost loved one,” he said.

“In a way, this explains that mysterious term we learned in catechism,” the communion of saints,” where the community of those already in heaven supposedly remains united with the community of those still on earth,” he said.

CKS published the book, “Gale at Gosu,” by Crispin Cadiang, a former priest, who composed “Ibpa Mi” (Our Father) and 461 liturgical songs. The Aguman Talasulat Capampangan (Agtaca or Fraternity of Campampangan Writers) has been reviving the gosu since 2006.

In the former town of Betis, which was annexed to Guagua in 1904, All Souls’ Day or “undas” is observed for nine days—a rite that is not done elsewhere in the country.

Every afternoon, Catholics in Betis light candles, offer flowers and recite the Rosary. In the middle of the cemetery is a chapel that was built high to overlook the tombs. At dusk on the ninth day, the priest celebrates Mass and bless tombs.