All Souls Day

Since I was little, it has been customary for our family to spend all souls day, 1st of November at the cemetery. It was something that me and my sisters look forward to then because it always turned out to be like a picnic with my family, aunt and cousins. Our beloved "nanay", who was our nanny (who saw us through childhood till college! She was like the lola we never had and the mayor doma to our other househelpers) and cook would prepare her famous pork adobo and yummy meatballs as our staple all sous day baon. We would bring hoards of rice, softdrinks and lots and lots of chicheriya!!! It was like a junk-food holiday for us kids, because we were normally not allowed to have junk food and sodas. All of that plus the food my aunt would bring, (which were usually the pastas, sandwiches, liempos or chicken dish) would really last us through the day. My parents and aunt would tell stories about their childhood as we played with melted candle wax and turn them into wax-balls! My sisters, cousins and I would at times stroll aroung the memorial park and look for more food to ask our parents to buy us---cotton candy, dirty ice cream, pop corn, kasoy, hotdogs, pizza....it seemed like it was a day in the amusement park!

I miss those days. Now that we are older, we rarely go the same day with our cousins. This year we went a different day for the firs time. We paid our respects to our departed ones on the 31st, to avoid the foreseen traffic annual hazzards going to the cemetery. Although we still brough our adobo (now prepared by my sis) and some chicheriya (which were 4-5 packs of e-aji)...its not the same, really. We got there late in the afternoon and stayed until half passed midnight....at least we were able to stay 'till Nov1.