No scary costumes in Angeles City

FOUR hundred people, many of them children, joined the Pamisamak da ring Santo, a saint-themed costume party in Angeles City, Pampanga. JUSTINE DIZON/ INQUIRER CENTRAL LUZON

ANGELES CITY—At least 400 residents here, many of them children, dressed up as saints of the Roman Catholic Church for the Pamisamak da ring Santo (Heaven’s Runway), a costume party at the Apu Mamacalulu (Merciful Lord) Shrine on Tuesday.

The annual event’s fifth staging was organized by the Holy Rosary Parish (HRP) community to show there was a Christian way of commemorating what people now know as Halloween, said Jeffrey Buan, head of the HRP Liturgy of Ministry.

Western Halloween is set on All Hallow’s Eve, which is the start of a three-day Catholic remembrance for the dead.

“All Hallow’s Eve is the day before All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day in the Catholic calendar. For the Catholic Church, we want to bring back that concept that this day is for the saints and it is not supposed to be scary,” Buan said.

Among the crowd favorites were a young St. Teresa of Calcutta, a boy who dressed up as St. John Paul II, another in Santo Niño (the child Jesus) costume, someone dressed as St. Michael the Archangel and versions of St. Lucia and St. Gabriel.

Buan said the event will help younger Catholics learn more about the lives of the saints and encourage them to live by the examples set by the saints.

He also encouraged the faithful to study the teachings of the saints.

“We use their lives to see what is truly Christ-like in them. When we venerate the saints, we do not venerate the person. We venerate Christ which is in them,” Buan said. Justine Dizon, Inquirer Central Luzon