Trick or treat?

Little witches, baby batmans and supermans, a cherub, little devils with pitchforks, snow white, little red riding hood... they were all in the mall today carrying plastic pumpkins full of candies.

I don't know exactly when this foreign tradition started in the Philippines but I've been noticing this for the past couple of years, and more and more children (and their parents) seem to be getting into it. It must be fun for the kids - an excuse to dress up in costumes and have a bit too much candy. I wonder though if people do understand what this practice stands for or where this came from.

When I was a child, we didn't do trick or treats although I knew what it is from reading and watching movies. Back then, all we did from the eve of the 1st to the 2nd of November was to prepare for and go to the cemetery to visit our dearly departed. It was a major production number - buy candles and flowers, cook food, join the throng headed to the cemetery, clean the tombstones, light candles, pray, wait for candles to burn out while munching on sandwiches and watching other people.

The candles were normally huge ones that took hours to melt. My brother and I used to catch the drippings off the candles and turn them into balls of wax. I don't know why but it seemed like a fun thing to do when we were kids.

More often than not it rains on the 1st of November. Other times, it is hot and humid, or it could be both on the same day. The traffic near the cemetery is terrible, and the whole cemetery gets so packed with people, you'd hear an announcement once in a while of a missing kid. It's not actually a good time to be out specially with kids in tow.

Nevertheless, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day for Filipino families is a time for remembering the dead. Traditionally, these are the days for lighting up candles in their honor and leaving them flowers to show that we care. Of course, remembering shouldn't just happen on these days, but I also see the importance of devoting specific days for doing this. I guess it was our way of telling our dearly departed that they are still special in our hearts.

When I was a child, this is how I thought of "Halloween". The concept of dressing up to do trick or treats and to party was an alien concept then, and although I understand the fun in it now, there is still a part of me that is hoping that parents are still teaching their children our traditions about this time of the year. Costumes, trick or treats, pumpkins... I'm sorry but I still can't relate to these.