Undas - Old Beliefs in New Clothes

Carmina and Patch discover the mystical, spiritual, and very diverse practices of our ancestors when honoring their dead. They unearth the long and winding history of the word “Undas” and how our practices today are perhaps another form of resistance against colonization. Listen in as they learn about how our pre-colonial practices are manifested in today’s Christian traditions. 

Learn more: The Beginnings of Filipino Society and Culture, Undas: Celebrating Death Through Life in the Philippines, Notes on the Sulod Concept of Death, The Soul, and The Region of the Dead, Atang | Undas 2021, Religious Practices On Honoring The Dead: Need For Contextualized Christian Formation, Pangangaluluwa: An Unheard Filipino ‘Halloween’ Tradition, Pre-colonial burial traditions, Ancient Burial Spaces and Places, Did Undas originate from ancient Aztec beliefs?, Filipino Death Traditions Continued: The Indigenous People, Barangay Sixteenth Century Philippine Culture And Society, and Pampanga’s ritual for the dead lives on. 

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Transcript

Welcome to FilTrip, a podcast where we explore everything fun, weird, and in between about the Philippines.

Hi, Carmina.

Hi, Patch.

On today's episode, we decided that we were going to talk about Undas. And I have to confess that I was confused as to the difference between All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, Undas, and all of that. So were you as confused as I was?

Well, I wasn't really asking myself those questions, but I somehow found the answers to some of your questions.

Yeah. To briefly kind of organize, All Saints' Day or Araw ng Mga Santo happens on November 1. Right?

And it's self-explanatory. Araw ng Mga Santo, All Saints' Day. All Souls' Day or Araw ng Mga Kaluloa is November 2.
Undas, it encompasses both of them, from October 31 through November 2, and it also includes in certain regions, the Tangangaluloa, or Pagaanito, which is the night of October 31st.

Well, this is what I unearthed.

Okay. Sounds intriguing.

And the reason how I went down this rabbit hole is I was trying to find out what the word itself, undas, means.

Right.

And how did that word even come about? 

So there were several schools of thought. The first school of thought was that it came from a Spanish word, on-dras.
So in Spanish, that word, on-ras or on-ras means funerary honors, which over time evolved phonetically into undas. And so from there, people were like, okay, well, then maybe it was a Spanish ritual. A lot of the stuff that we do, we attribute to the colonization.

The other school of thought was the word undas might have been a hispanized form of indigenous words like handaan, which means feast or offering. As a lot of our words also evolved, the Spanish heard someone native speaking it and they just evolved it.

I came across one theory, which is that the word undas likely came from Filipinos' habit of shortening long Spanish words or phrases. So, All Saints Day or Dia de los Todos Santos in Spanish was shortened to undas somehow as a practical adaptation.
Right. But I think your confusion is stemming from the fact that we are assuming that this practice came from the Spaniards.

I'm just really confused in general.
That could be it too. 

No, I don't think so, because again, as I was going down this rabbit hole, it kind of makes sense that we're confused because we're thinking that we got these rituals from them. But actually, we had indigenous practices already. And because the Spaniards were colonizing us, a lot of our indigenous practices, we evolved to survive colonization. So, the practice was already there. We basically repackaged it with the terminology of the Spaniards, but we kept the rituals.

“MBut also, I read somewhere that really, it was more not so much Spanish as in Spain, but more of the Mexico. So, that's why it's more festive rather than solemn.

Right. 

Like last episode, we talked about how closely related we are to Mexico because of this thread of colonization that we share. But you're absolutely right. November 1 particularly is not from Spain, but from Mexico's Dia de los Muertos.

During Undas, families visit cemeteries to pay respect to their family members who have passed away or ancestors. So for a few days, these cemeteries or resting places come alive. So people clean and decorate the tombs, and they offer flowers, candles, colorful ornaments.

They share meals, stories, and there's even a lot of laughter.

You know, you're being very mild in your description. Because really, it's like a fiesta.
I guess. 

Well, I'm also maybe remembering how it was for me as a child. For us, it wasn't as festive as others.

Maybe you have a different perspective.
Oh, right. Because I usually celebrated it in the province.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

As we celebrated in Manila. So it was a little bit more... not too solemn.

Respectful.

Not as festive.

It was kind of like sometimes a family reunion in the cemetery, right?

Yes, for sure.

And there's food. Can we talk briefly? Do you remember what kind of food your family would have?

Oh, type of food. I'm not remembering a type of food, but there was always a lot of food.

Yeah. So of course, Filipinos, especially the Tagalogs, you know, typical adobo, pancit and lumpia. But for us, my mom's contribution was always embutido sandwich. Because it still tastes good without being heated, you know, just a pandesal with the embutido. So anyway, I don't know why that's so vivid.

That's an example actually of an indigenous rite that has particular meaning. Kind of ties back to what I said earlier about the word undas, right? That it could have been a hispanized form of a word like handaan or like a feast or an offering.

“In indigenous times, pre-colonial rituals involved setting aside the best portions of food for spirits that we call anito. The belief was that if you feed the dead, they can protect the living. It's kind of like this negotiating chip. Like here, we give you food. Can you protect us? But that was indigenous. That wasn't really Catholic. And then Patch, when you were a kid, did you used to go from gravesite to grave? Because people would leave out candles, right?

And that was another thing that we used to believe. The candles, it's not a signal of mourning, but it's for guiding the spirits home.

Even the shape of the candle itself, it's circular.

What you just said about circular forms of candles, when I was a kid, we had this practice of making it into balls.

Yes.

The bigger your ball is at the end of the night, you were kind of the winner. It was kind of looked upon favorably if you had the bigger ball, right? Did you guys do that?
Because I just remember me and my cousins would literally rob…rob wax from any candle drippings that we could find to come up with the biggest one. And we didn't realize that it was derived from this belief. It's about the cycle of life and death.
That's why it's circular. That's what it meant. Meanwhile, we were just like playing.

So now, because you said the bigger the ball is, you're kind of win. But to me, that means you have a longer life then because your cycle is a bigger circle.

Probably. I didn't even know that meant anything. And I kind of came across an analogy. I forget where. But this article was saying that candles aren't for grief. They're literally spirit Wi-Fi routers.

Because if the fire was believed to be a gateway for the spirit, the bigger your wax ball, the better your Wi-Fi connection is to the dead.

That's funny. I like that.

And then this practice of like we said the vigil. Because I don't know again in Manila, but in Balayan, it basically became this overnight vigil sometimes. And it was full of prayers.

But in pre-colonial times, these all night rituals is directly related to that Pag-anito terminology that we talked about. Where the Babaylans or basically the Shamans communed with the dead. So the cemetery sleepover is really more connected to that practice than to Catholic morning masses.

I did want to mention there are burial methods in the Philippines. They were boat coffins usually found in the coastal areas. Jar burials such as the famous Manunggul Jar of Palawan.

And then, there's the direct burial in the ground, which is very common. There was also cremation apparently. I wasn't familiar with cremation for our pre-colonial ancestors.

And then, there's the in-house burials. They were buried within the family home.
And sometimes suspended in the rafters apparently.

Yes, yes. So apparently, in the Benguet or the Mountain Province, the dead are blindfolded and seated on a chair near the entrance of the home. In Cavite, some rural communities bury the dead in trees.

So what you're mentioning, Patch, is the differences between primary and secondary burials. In some pre-colonial traditions, the primary burial happens, and then a year later, the body is either exhumed or cremated or arranged into these jars or to these vessels. That's the secondary burial.

Apparently, that secondary burial happened in the more elevated positions in society. It was considered a status. All of the stuff that you mentioned earlier, like I was also reading about all of these.

The one that really freaks me out is where they're suspended in the rafters. And apparently, to prevent, because the body undergoes a decaying process, right? It was drained off by caulking a bamboo tube into a small hole.

So they would wait for that to finish, and then they would seal off that hole. And the reason why they were allowing the spirit, as the decay happens, to pass through. Like I said, a year or so later, they were removed, they were given a ritual cleansing by a babaylan, for example, or a shaman, and they're placed in a smaller chest, where they were permanently preserved, venerated, and carried along.
So we never think that our dead leave us. They always are moving with us.

I think that's a contrast from the Western notion of not disturbing the dead, right? Because there's a primary and then there's a secondary ritual. We don't consider that disturbing.

Like even in Asia, right? We see this in a lot of the K-dramas that we watch. The dead really are still part of our family.
We don't forget them. This is a way for us to really honor them, number one. But like I said earlier, there was this kind of bribing too with the food because we're expecting them to still protect us as our ancestors.

That's a good point.

It's not really remembering the dead. We're maintaining our connection with them across the spiritual dimension. So this one, and this is probably where October 31, like the trick or treating aspect.

I think, oh my gosh, I was just thinking of that.

There is a pre-colonial practice called Pangangaduluwa. The root word of Pangangaduluwa is soul, the concept of the soul. And there was a practice of going house to house, singing for the souls.
Of course, here in the US., people are giving away candy. There's not really a giving away of anything.

It was really going house to house to sing for the souls. So, their memories are kept alive and that they were also kind of honoring them. And this is particularly helpful, we thought, for the wandering souls.

It's kind of our version of Halloween. People often dressed in white blankets to resemble spirits and they would go from house to house singing songs for the dead. Much like what we do at Christmas caroling, right?

So, it's kind of like a combination. But, the traditional treat that they give out are rice cakes called Biko. That's one of the more popular ones.

And of course, there would be other treats too. But I thought that it was funny that if the household doesn't give out the treats, the visiting group would play light-hearted pranks on the family. So, one of which was to take a chicken from the household, as an act of retribution.

Again, to emphasize, it's not always a solemn time.

And Patch I encountered a scholarly article that specifically mentions Balayan. There were Franciscan friars who were met with Filipinos, or what we're calling Filipinos now, from Balayan, or the original Balayan, who were Muslim. So they actually performed Islamic rituals on their dead.

And that's what the friars encountered there. One of their contingent's mothers was given a moral burial in Balayan. So her body was wound with a white sheet and entered in a grave with a board on top to prevent contact with the soil.

And there were two ornamental grave markers about 30 centimeters high. And then during the ritual, the mound was sprinkled with water, while prayers were offered by a siak, considered an expert in religious law. And there were some chants that were basically giving honor to Allah.

I just thought that it's really fascinating about all of these different practices that the Spaniards came across when they colonized us. So that's why it's really hard, right, to turn the tide on traditions like ours. Because number one, we were so fragmented that we had so many different ones.

And so they can't just unify us under Catholicism, just like that.

Well, in a way, that's what they did, kind of, right? I mean, sadly, a lot of our pre-colonial history and traditions were erased, except for certain parts. But at the same time, they did kind of unify us, right?

And then you come across this tradition, too, in the Ilocos region. They called it gulgul, cleansing ritual.

No, what is that?

So the day after the funeral, the family performs gulgul, which is washing your hair with shampoo made from water, sugarcane wine, or vinegar. Or they would burn rice stalks. Or they would offer betel leaves and tobacco.

And it was said that this practice removes grief, bad luck, and lingering spirits.

Oh, okay. So I misunderstood. I thought they wash the hair of the dead.

No, it's the living.

Yes, whoever is left behind.

Okay.

And then in Cavite, the indigenous people hollowed out a specific tree, and the body or the sarcophagus were placed inside the tree. And this reflects the belief in returning to nature and the sacred tree worship in that region.

So the concept of like sacred trees or tree of life is so familiar across different cultures, different countries.

And then there's a ritual in Cebu, where a cadaver has a ritual haircut during the funeral. And if you're a widow, you would lie on the body, mouth to mouth. And it was one of the earliest documented Filipino funeral practices.

I mean, I don't know why they called it a ritual haircut. I think there is a more significant thing happening here than the haircut.

Also, yeah, what was the purpose of, well, what's the purpose of the mouth to mouth? But what would they do with the hair? Does it say there what the significance is of cutting the hair?

I guess they didn't get to that point during their documentation. But, wow.

I mean, I guess that's not as terrifying as other cultures were in.

The wives, yeah.

With the dead. So maybe that's not as, it's not fatal, I guess is my point.

That's so true.

But I guess it also depends on what was the cause of death. Because if you're mouth-to-mouth, that potentially could eventually be fatal, right? But anyway.

So this was apparently witnessed by Pigafetta. And I don't know why he didn't dig deeper into why all this was happening. Moving on from that mouth-to-mouth.

You were mentioning earlier about the vessels, right? A lot of these vessels or sarcophaguses were boat-shaped. That basically demonstrates that our maritime culture had a very deep integration with deaf beliefs.

And a lot of them were found in archaeological sites in Romblon and in Butuan, which predated our Spanish contact. And the Manunggul jar that you were mentioning earlier, too, has that symbolism because a lot of them have toppings, right? The carvings on top that depict two people, one in front and one at the back with the oars, seemingly crossing through rivers and seas.

I liked how you used the word crossing because they're crossing, obviously, from this life to the afterlife.

Another funny quote that I saw was, the dead don't leave us, they just change addresses.

Or in some places, they stay in your same house.

That sitting position burial that you were talking about where they're positioned in front, the Ilunggots, when they do that, their hands are tied to their feet to prevent it from roaming. If the man was the one who died first, it was the wife who prepares the body alone because they believe that the dead spirit can give her messages from the afterlife. Which makes sense, right?
Because that's the closest relationship.

So if it's the woman who dies first, it's a whole family who prepares the dead instead of just the dead.

I have no clue. Why are all of these resources very fragmented?

Well, this has always been our struggle, right? We try to do our research about the pre-colonial past, and there's only very limited information out there, which is very sad. But hopefully, we get to discover more.
They're always discovering things, right?

Staying on the theme of sitting, the Benguet Seated Burial. So the body is left outside the main door in a chair. And I think you mentioned this, blindfolded for eight days, seated in a seated position with the arms and legs tied with a rope.

And it's called the Banguil Ritual, where the elders recite the dead person's biography, like a eulogy, right? While friends and family hit bamboo sticks because they think that that would lead them to the afterlife.

Does it mention anywhere why the dead are seated?

Because they believe that it's a way to maintain their dignity and connection to the living world. Did you find anything about the number of days? Because, you know, we have the day nine and day forty stuff.

Yeah, so we have a popular tradition that's called Pasiyam or Pagsisiyam, which literally means that which is done for nine days. And we always connected to the Catholic practice of having a nine-day novena. But pre-colonially, we had our own practice of this.

And it was believed that the soul enters the spirit world on the ninth day following death. And apparently, there's this lost tradition. There's not really a lot of documentation about this, but there's a Tebao play.

On the ninth day, a theatrical play called Tebao was staged to honor the dead. And this was a Tagalog ritual apparently. So when I say play, it's not really a theatrical performance per se, like we have in the modern sense.

But it's this period of celebration, feasting, and basically commemorating the deceased loved one. And it involved a feast that lasted several days where attendees could gather to weep for the dead and consume alcohol. And I just remember when I was younger, there was a lot of gambling going on as well.

Yeah, like I said, it's more festive in a lot of ways, right?

Exactly. And the word tibao originates from the Visayan language of the Philippines, meaning to cry or to attend the rites for the dead.

I'm still back at that number nine because I'm very intrigued. Why nine rain? Is it because, you know, it's before ten, right?

But also, you have prayers for nine days after death because the nine days is also symbolic to the nine months the person was in the womb.

Interesting. And again, that circle of life.

Yeah.

And then lastly, there is this 40th day. On the 40th day, typically in the Philippines, there's another mass that's celebrated when the soul is believed to end their wandering about the earth.

Great.

And in the Catholic belief, we believe that they ascend to the afterlife, which puts that connection between Christ's resurrection and ascension. But again, in pre-colonial times, this was called the waksi, or panagwaksi, or babangluksa, right? Which marks the end of the morning.

So I guess that's kind of, gives like a sense of closure, I guess.

So that was interesting, Pat. Our search for the meaning of the word undas led us down this very rich and very interesting journey throughout our indigenous and pre-colonial history. The one thing, again, that this solidified for me is that it's not something that Catholicism brought in.

It's something that Catholicism couldn't remove. And it's a form of resistance that our ancestors staged so that they could somehow preserve their beliefs.”m

What we've been discovering in a lot of our episodes, while Catholicism and other Western customs have shaped many of what is now the modern observances of our Filipino culture, the heart of pre-colonial Filipino customs remain. And it's really still rooted in a lot of our ancient spirituality. And respect for our ancestors.

That's right. That's why we have all this confusion.

That's our episode. We hope you join us on our next trip. 

Thanks for listening to FilTrip with Carmina and Patch.

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