We Filipinos are endowed all over the world due to our rich heritage, history and culture. These unique features give us the identity of stand and take pride if our precious jewels that our fore father had passed to us.
Due to its being an archipelago, the Philippines is home with thousands of distinct and unique culture that continuously existing up to this days. Within this culture lies our tradition, belief and practices that every person that belongs to that certain culture must obey and practice in order that the culture will keep on existing. And one of this is the burial practices that deals with paying respect to our beloved loved ones who had left us for afterlife.
For the Ilocanos, the dead persons usually professionally embalmed and placed in the coffin. The dead is usually dressed with the National dresses, the Barong Tagalong for the gentlemen and Maria Clara and the Terno are for the ladies. The boy is mourned and prayed for Nine (9) days and night that symbolizes the Nine (9) Holy Mystery of the Rosary. In that period, it is their belief that the coffin’s glass should not be wiped nor cleaned by any member of the family. The carpet of the coffin must not also be swept by the aid of any cleaning material because if it will not be obeyed, bad luck will come or even worst, another member of the family will die. Tang is also served near the coffin for the belief that the soul of the dead person also needs to eat like everybody does.
In the rural areas, the body is brought to the church for the blessing and the body’s final mass. Internment is usually scheduled for 3:00 p.m., to coin with the hour of Christ’s crucifixion. A band precedes the coffin during of the funeral march while the members of the immediate family walk behind the hearse to escort the dead to the cemetery.
But in some urban areas, where the cemeteries or the memorial parks may be some distance away, the funeral procession is replaced by slow-moving motorcade, with the car of the family following the hearse.
The female relatives of the deceased wear black or white band around their upper arm to show their sorrow.
The dead person usually clasps a rosary in his folded hands. Before the coffin is placed into the niche, the coffin is opened for the immediate members of the family to view their loved one for the last time. Sometimes they kiss the coffin’s glass window in farewell. The rosary is broken to prevent another death of the family. It is also a practice that the small children will pass-over the coffin with out touching the coffin’s surface so that the spirit if the dead person will not haunt them. After that, a feast is served for everybody who went to the internment. But before the person must eat he must wash his hand to the boiled water that contains guava leaves. This symbolizes one must wash his sorrow as he deep his hand to the solution and to celebrate that the soul of the person who had passed is now united with God in heaven.
A gulgol is made a day after the internment. It is usually done near the riverbank. It is made to let all the memories of the dead person let go as flow of the water. A nine-day novena is usually prayed for the eternal repose of the deceased. On the fortieth day after the death, a mass is held, followed by a celebration. It is believed that by his time, the soul would have been cleansed in purgatory and reunited with the Lord, just as Christ ascend into heaven forty days after his death.
Meanwhile, on the northern part of the country particularly in Benguet, burial practices are not just as simple as the Ilocanos. It’s a long process that needs to undergo not only to the corpse but also to the bereave family. This process is called mummification. They say that there is no such record about when this practice started but they believed that the persons in there had practice mummification long before the seventeenth century.
According to the elder, mummification begins with the embalmers pouring a solution of salt water into the mouth of the dead person to prevent early decomposition of the internal organs. The corpse is then stripped of clothes and bathed in cold water. Wrapped in the death blanket, the corpse is tied to a chair called the death chair. The chair stands on high stilts. The corpse sits in the chair for a week or so until the body fluids flow out of the swollen body.
In this condition, the corpse is then laid on the floor. Close relatives peel the outer skin off the whole body, which is washed repeatedly with cold water until all the body fluids stop coming out. Covered with the same blanket, the corpse is tied again to the death chair.
The next step is removing the worms that infest the body. When the corpse begins to dry, the juice of boiled and pounded herbs, and guava and patani leaves is applied to the body everyday until it is totally dry. Animal fats and leaves of bisodok and duming are also continuously rubbed on the skin. Then, a fire is built below the death chair, with the regulated heat, to smoke the body up to two years. Tobacco smokes is also blown through the mouth of the dead body because it is believed that tobacco smoke is good preservative.
When the body begins to shrink, its position is change. The corpse is placed in a crouching position with the hands and legs tied to the chest. As the corpse dries, is placed under the sun during the day and smoked during the night.
Drying and smoking are done alternately from two months to one year. At the end of the process, the corpse is placed in the coffin usually made of a hollowed-out trunk of a tree. The coffin can be of various sizes. Decorations markings and drawing of animals or whatever symbols the deceased specified are engrave on the coffin. The corpse is finally buried in the cave of his ancestors, or and other cave chosen by his nearest of kin.
The mumbaki (native priest) decide the day of the burial based on propitious signs during the early evening. Before the corpse is finally buried, native rituals are observed by the town folks. Pigs, carabaos, and cows are butchered, while rice wine (tapuy) is served everyday, until the corpse is buried by the native priest.
Mummification was expensive and took a long time to do. It became a status symbol. The richer the dead man’s family, the costlier the care and maintenance of the mummy.
One’s culture and tradition must not be the basis to judge and degrade the person culture. But it must be the way to get to know him more. And we should take note that we are all Filipinos; the things that you do to others reflects you. Respect is essential. And if this is don’t reign, chaos will automatically take over. It should also be the way to learn how rich our culture is and a vital ground to get to know who we really are.
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