Pinoy Halloween – Part 1 – Elena For Reels

my almost rotten pumpkin, Spooky

It was on the night of my wedding six years ago when I attended my very first Halloween Party. I’d say it was very different from the way we celebrated it back home. Halloweens here are purely for fun and entertainment.

We celebrate Halloween differently at home. Growing up, we didn’t don costumes and go trick or treating. We didn’t decorate our houses to get that spooky feeling. Halloween was more like a solemn holiday. In fact, we call it All Soul’s Day and All Saints’ Day. It meant a time for us to pay homage to our dearly departed and visit their grave sites from near and far. More often, the holidays accidentally become reunions. It is a chance to get-together with relatives that we haven’t seen for a long time.

If we can’t physically visit, we light candles for our loved ones and pray. We also offer food because we believe that the (dead) spirits come down on earth to be one with their loved ones on this special day, just like why children leave cookies for Santa Claus on Christmas day.

Another interesting Pinoy Halloween tradition is ‘mangaluluwa’. I haven’t really experienced this but I think this is the Filipino version of trick or treat. This is like Christmas caroling but mostly folksongs are sung.