Funeral practices and burial customs in the Philippines

A funeral procession in the Philippines.

Funeral practices and burial customs in the Philippines encompass a wide range of personal, cultural, and traditional beliefs and practices which Filipinos observe in relation to bereavement, dying, honoring, respecting, interring, and remembering their departed loved ones, relatives, and friends. Sources of the various practices include religious teachings, vestiges of colonialism, and regional variations on these.

In the past and in present times, Filipinos believe in the afterlife and give attention to respecting and paying homage to dead people. Wakes are generally held from 3 to 7 days. Provincial wakes are usually held in the home, while city dwellers typically display their dead at a funeral home. Apart from spreading the news about someone’s death verbally, obituaries are also published in newspapers. Although the majority of the Filipino people are Christians, they have retained some traditional indigenous beliefs concerning death.

Filipino Christian burial customs

Wake

When a person dies in the Philippines, Christian Filipinos  – such as Catholics that include the Tagalog people  – generally hold a wake known as lamay or paglalamay, a vigil that typically lasts for five to seven nights, but may last longer if the surviving family is waiting for someone who will be traveling from afar. During this time, the cleaned and embalmed body of the dead, placed in a coffin, is displayed at the house of deceased or at a funeral home. The exhibited casket of the departed is traditionally surrounded by funeral lights, a guest registry book, a contribution box, and flowers. Family members, relatives, and acquaintances participate in the vigil. Apart from offering condolences, the participants, guests, and viewers of the departed provide financial donations (the abuloy) to help defray funeral and burial cost. Food and warm drinks are customarily served during the nightly vigil. Typical activities conducted outside or near the vigil area include singing, guitar playing, and gambling  – such as playing card games  – to pass the time and to keep awake.

It is conventional that concerned visitors ask the surviving family members how the deceased died, if he or she suffered during his or her illness or last moments, or how much the hospital expenses were. Such personal questions convey valid affection and concern from the vigil partakers. Other people also customarily offer mass, novenas, and prayers for the benefit of the deceased.

Funeral

On the burial or funeral day, the coffin is generally loaded into a hearse or carried by family members, relatives, and friends in a procession towards the church and the cemetery. Other members of the family, relatives, and friends will follow after the transported coffin during the funeral march. Catholic funerals involve the celebration of the mass, while Protestant funerals include singing of hymns and recitation of prayers, particularly by a preacher.

The representative color of attires for the memorial service and interment is normally black. However if white clothing is preferred, it is customary to sport a black mourning pin at the chest area.

After the entombment of the departed, Christian Filipinos, particularly the Catholics, offer prayers such as praying the rosary  – for the dead every evening and for nine days, a custom known as the pasiyam or pagsisiyam (literally, “to execute for nine days”). This nine-day prayer service concludes on the last night with a novena and a formal meal with family, relatives, and friends. Such a concluding rite on the ninth day is performed because Filipinos believe that this is the day when the soul of the departed relative moves on from the world of the living. The bereavement period does not normally end with this ritual, instead extending for a period of one year. During this time, the family will still express their mourning by not holding personal or family celebrations and other communal activities. Although, it is very common to conduct an additional evening of prayer forty days after the nine-day period, then again, on the one year anniversary of the departed.

All Souls Day

Main article: All Souls Day

Christian Filipinos customarily remember, honor, and pay respect to the dead on All Saints Day (November 1) and All Souls Day (November 2). The grave sites are cleaned, visited, and adorned by family members, relatives and friends on the eve of November 1, to stay at the cemetery, to light candles, to pray, to lay flowers, and bring food for the consumption of the attendees. Others, like the Ilocanos, offer food for the dead. Some children habitually gather candle wax during this time for the purpose of play or reselling to candlemakers.

Regional customs

Luzon region

Apayao customs

The Apayaos, also known as the Isnegs or Isnags, of the Cordillera Administrative Region bury the deceased person under the kitchen area of their homes.

Benguet customs

For eight days, the indigenous people from Benguet blindfold the dead and then sit it on a chair that is placed next to a house’s main entrance. The arms and legs are held in the sitting position by means of tying. A bangil rite is performed by the elders on the eve of the funeral, which is a chanted narration of the biography of the deceased. During interment, the departed is directed towards heaven by hitting bamboo sticks together.

Caviteño customs

Some rural area residents in Cavite make use of trees as burial places. The dying person chooses the tree beforehand, thus when he or she becomes terminally ill or is evidently going to die because old age, a hut for him or her is built close to the said tree. When the person dies, he is entombed vertically inside the hollowed-out tree trunk.

Ilocano customs

Wake

Filipinos in the Ilocos regions of the Philippines also have their own funeral and burial traditions, known as the pompon or "burial rites". An example would be how a dead husband is prepared by the wife for the wake, known in Ilocano as the bagongon. Typically, only the wife will cloth the corpse, believing that the spirit of the spouse can convey messages through her. Placement of the coffin is also important, which is to be at the center of the home and must be corresponding to the planks of the floorboards. Lighting a wooden log in front of the house is also customary because the smoke assists the spirit of the dead towards heaven. This log is kept in flames during the wake to repel wicked spirits. The ceremonial attire of the female family members for the vigil is clothing with black coloration. Their heads and shoulder area are shrouded with a black handkerchief known as the manto.

Funeral

Burial customs of the Ilocano people include closing all windows first before taking the casket out of the home, preventing any part of the coffin to hit any part of the dwelling (to prevent the spirit of the dead from loitering to bring forth dilemmas to the household; to some Filipinos, a coffin hitting any object during a funeral means that another person will soon die), and washing the hairs of family members with a shampoo known as gogo (to remove the influence of the spirit of the departed). rice cakes and basi to attendees after each prayer offering session. On the ninth night, a feast is held after the praying or novena. They will again recite prayers and a feast after one year.

Ilongot customs

The Ilongot is buried in a sitting position, and if a woman, has her hands tied to her feet, to prevent her "ghost" from roaming.

Itneg customs

The Itnegs of Abra have a customary habit of burying their dead under their houses.

Palaweño customs

Sketch of an anthropomorphic jar from Maitum at the Saranggani Province of Mindanao.

One of the ancient customs for burying the dead in the Philippines is through the use of burial jars known as Manunggul jars. These ancient potteries were found in the Manunggul Cave at the island of Palawan. A characteristic of the jars for the dead is the presence of anthropomorphic human figures on the pot covers. These figures embody souls riding a boat for the dead while seafaring towards their sanctuary in the afterlife. These containers have been dated to be from 710 BC to 890 BC. There are also figures of boating people steering paddles, wearing headbands, jaw-bands, and persons with hands folded across the chest area. The latter is a method of arranging the remains of the dead.

Other similar anthropomorphic jars were also found at Pinol (also spelled as Piñol), Maitum, in the Saranggani Province of the island of Mindanao. These funeral jars dates back from the Metal Age.

In addition to these jars, the 1965 archaeological excavations done by Robert Fox at Langen Island in El Nido, Palawan found out that a cave known as Leta-leta Cave was a burial site that dates to the Late Neolithic Period.

Sagada customs

Main article: Hanging coffins

Hanging coffins at Sagada Province in the Philippines.

In the Sagada region in the Mountain Province of the Island of Luzon, the ancient funeral norm of hanging coffins from mountain cliffs is still being practiced by some minority groups. The purpose of suspending the casket from the mountain rocks is to bring the deceased closer to heaven.

In ancient times, the coffins were made from carved and hollowed-out wood. They are 'hung' into place through the use of projecting beams.

Tinguian customs

For many weeks, the Tinguian people dress the dead body with the best garments, sit it on a chair, and sometimes put a lit tobacco source between the dead person’s lips.

Visayas region

Cebuano customs

Funeral traditions of the Cebuano people also include nine-day recitation of the rosary, litanies, novenas, and Latin prayers after the burial, with the addition of chanting the Pahulayng Dayon or “Eternal Rest” (also known as "Gozos for the Dead"). The Cebuanos also have superstitious beliefs related to funerals. These superstitions include: placing funeral alms or limos into a container, avoidance of sweeping the flooring of the home of the deceased (wastes are picked by the hand instead of being swept by brooms; other Filipinos also have this superstition), no bathing and no combing of hair on the part of relatives (other Filipinos too believe in this), placing worn mourning pins into the coffin during interment, preventing tears from dropping onto the glass plate of the casket (in order for the departed soul to travel in peace), placing a chick on top of the coffin of an individual who died due to a transgression (to hasten justice for the dead victim), wearing of black or white clothing during the interment (except for a child who is dressed with a red-colored garment, as a deterrent from seeing the ghost of the dead relative), urging relatives to pass through under the casket before it is loaded into the funeral vehicle (to assist the surviving relatives in moving on with their life), marching the dead towards the church and the cemetery (known as the hatod, or “carrying the departed to his destination” on foot), consuming food only at the cemetery after the interment, and passing through smoke while still within the cemetery or by the gates of the cemetery (to disentangle the spirits of the dead from the bodies of the living).

Ilonggo customs

Merriment, singing, and poem recitations are components of funerals in Oton, Iloilo. Gambling is also permitted because gaming contributions help assuage the expenses incurred for burying the dead.

Mindanao region

Bilaan customs

The Bilaan people of Mindanao wrap their dead inside tree barks. Being enveloped as such, the dead person's body is then suspended from treetops.

Davao customs

Customs in Davao City include cutting rosaries that are placed within the hands of the departed (to sever the possibility of having a series of deaths), placement of a chick on the coffin during wakes, preventing teardrops from reaching coffins (in case of brutal deaths), breaking plates prior to taking the coffin out of any edifice, making children walk under a hoisted coffin before loading the latter into the hearse, and burning dried leaves or paper and applying the smoke to mourners' feet before leaving the burial ground.

Other burial customs

Elements of other Filipino superstitious beliefs entail the involvement of the sudden appearances of certain animals, particularly those that are black in color. Examples are the following: the appearance of a lingering black-colored butterfly around an individual is taken to indicate that a next of kin of that person died; the sighting of a black-hued cat by an ill individual heading toward a hospital would mean that he or she may not survive his or her disease; the detection of an owl near the home of a sick individual signifies imminent death for that person.

Other beliefs pertaining to death are related to dreams, dining etiquette, odors, unusual shapes of certain objects, children, and odd numbers. Examples of these types are as follows: not allowing family members to leave the home until used utensils have been cleansed (it is believed that a family member may pass away if this habit is not followed), consuming sour fruits in the evenings (to avoid early parental demise), avoiding taking photographs of three persons together (to avoid the early death of the individual placed in the middle), sudden arrival of a scent of a burning candle  – in the absence of a lit candle  – hints that a relative had just died, losing a tooth during a dream is an omen that a relative will soon die, a headless shadow of an individual forewarns that that person will pass away soon, preventing all family members from viewing the face of a dead person at funerals (to prevent the ghost of the departed from visiting the family resulting in the death of every family member), and lifting children related to the deceased over caskets before the entombment (to hinder the ghost of the dead relative from visiting the children).

External links

• Video of a Funeral in the Philippines, vids.myspace.com