Remembering...

** The Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco **

I've been quiet here lately because I've been very occupied at work. I traveled for the most part of the last two weeks and so every little time I can spend at home, I spend it with my son. But I miss everyone that I stalk here in the blog world and I miss blogging as well.

I meant to write about my Halloween experience here. This is way too outdated but bear with me because this has been in my mind for the last two weeks, and I just need to let it out.

Since I came to the US, Halloween has been a totally different experience. Or should I say--a brand new experience? We never celebrated Halloween back home, but we celebrated and observed All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. For the past nine years, what used to be All Saints' and All Souls Day turned into Halloween, Costume Parties, Candies, Trick-or-treats and Mardi Gras at the Castro. This year, I was more excited about Halloween because for the first time, we had little ones to dress up. At work, we planned to have our kids over for a Halloween party. At home, I was expecting my sister and we were to take Lucas and Nathan trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. We got so excited about these little things that we forgot all about All Saints' and All Souls Day!

Halloween came and we called home to tell ma and pa what Lucas and Nathan were wearing, and to tell them to check Facebook because we just posted photos of the kids in their costumes. Mom got pretty upset when she learned that we did not even go to church. It felt horrible right there and then. Mom was right about everything. It was the time to remember our loved ones who passed away. It was the time to remember our unborn babies--those babies we miscarried and who we believe are now little angels watching over us and our families. We had a tradition that wasn't forced on us, but something that we believed and practiced growing up. And this time, we hardly remembered.

I had almost forgotten how important these holidays and traditions were back home, and how much I looked forward to it. We made All Souls' Day a lot of fun! We would all go back to our ancestral home in Loon, Bohol, cook a nice dinner and say the novena before the meal. We called this "Pahinungod sa mga Kalag". During the day, we would camp out at the cemetery, bring food and music, meet old friends and hear mass. Those were fun times and great memories!

Here, Lucas will have a different set of memories whether I like it or not. I don't know how much of our tradition I can share with him, but I do hope that he will at least know about it. As for me, I am grateful that I still have parents who remind me of things that I start to overlook. And I hope that someday, I can visit home on an All Saints' and All Souls' Day and experience the family tradition all over again!