A Birthday in the Cemetery

Today, all roads lead to the cemetery as we commemorate All Saints’ Day.

With floral arrangements and candles galore, the living pays homage to the dead, holding a virtual reunion in cemeteries complete with food and drinks ostensibly offered to the dead but consumed by the living.

Derived from the Greek for sleeping place, the word cemetery is definitely morbid as it is a place designated for burials or interment of the remains/corpses/cadavers/ashes of our departed beloved.

Throughout human history, we have known these final resting places by different names: catacombs, charnel houses, crypts, graves, mausoleums, reliquaries, tombs, ossuaries and columbaria, among others.

In the Philippines, the bronze-and-granite Rizal monument, with its Honor Guards, is the most famous grave site. Located right in front of Kilometer Zero (point from which road distances from Manila are measured), the monument contains the remains of our National Hero, Jose Rizal.

The most imposing final resting place is that of President Manuel Luis Quezon, right in the heart of Quezon Memorial Circle. In the bosom of this 66-meter edifice (he died at age 66) is Quezon’s grave, said to be a copy of Napoleon Bonaparte’s.

For those who land at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the 62-hectare Manila American Cemetery and Memorial is a beautiful landmark, followed by the imposing 117-hectare Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Among church cemeteries, the most romantic is Paco Park. A unique underground cemetery in Nagcarlan, Laguna is located right underneath a church. The floors and walls of the beautiful San Agustin Church have marble grave markers on its walls and floor, mostly written in Spanish.

Public cemeteries, owned and operated by local government units, are still the most in demand. The biggest in this category is the 54-hectare Cementerio del Norte in the City of Manila, located cheek by jowl with the slightly smaller La Loma Cemetery (just a tad short of 54-hectares) and the Manila Chinese Cemetery with mausoleums featuring grandiose interiors.

Up in the Mountain Province are the famous Hanging Coffins on Echo Valley and the burial caves of Sagada. In contrast are our modern-day Memorial Parks (otherwise known as lawn park cemeteries) that are, unfortunately, sometimes turned into trysting places.

The most exclusive are of course privately-owned, non-commercial cemeteries, generally on a portion of an estate where a mausoleum is built. And let us not forget the Pet Sematary (sic) made popular by a 1983 horror novel by Stephen King which was made into a movie in 1989.

One cemetery that, having been seen, will always be remembered because of the unsettling, albeit terrifying effect it creates, is the municipal cemetery of Tobias Fornier, Antique. A sign on its entrance arch proclaims: “Kami Karon, Kamo Dason” (literal translation: us now, you next).

PS: Happy Birthday, today, to my cousin Mike Isagan!