Filipino Culture and Funerals
Note From Rusty: Before moving to the Philippines, I got a lesson in Filipino culture. It was a hard time for Jessie in the loss of her much loved aunt. She told me about many of these funeral customs in the Philippines that she has written about here. I was fascinated by it. It is better coming from her than myself.
Wake in the Philippines
Filipino generally hold a wake (lamay or paglalamay) that last for five to seven days. Sometimes it last longer if the surviving family is waiting for someone who needs to travel from other places. In the province, a funeral is held in the home of the deceased. But people from the city would sometimes prefer to hold the wake in a funeral home.
Funerals in the Philippines varies from region, culture and belief of the Filipino. Filipinos believe in the afterlife and give respect and attention to the dead people. Apart from spreading the news of the death verbally, obituaries are also published in the newspaper.
The guests and viewers offers condolences and financial donations also called abuloy to help with the funeral and burial cost. Food and warm drinks are served during the vigil every night. To keep the guest awake, there are various activities conducted outside the vigil area. It includes singing, guitar playing and gambling – such as playing cards, bingo or mahjong. Half of the winning are sometimes donated for the burial cost. Guests offers mass, prayers and novenas for the benefit of the deceased.
Funeral In the Philippines
On the burial day, the coffin is loaded into a hearse or carried by family members, friends and relatives in a procession towards the church and to its final resting place, the cemetery. It is also called a Funeral March. Other family members, friends and relatives follow after the procession.
After the burial, the Christian Filipinos offers prayers for the dead every evening for 9 consecutive nights. It is a custom known as pasiyam (execute for nine days). On the ninth day of the novena, the family held a formal meal for the relatives and friends. Christians believe that this is the day where the soul of the dead moves on from the world of the living. The bereavement period does not end there. It goes on for a year. During this time, the family withhold celebrating various communal activities. It is also very common to conduct an additional evening prayers for 40 nights after the 9 day period, and then on the one year death anniversary.
Burial Customs
Filipino superstitious beliefs involves the appearance of certain animals that are black in color. For example, a black colored butterfly lingering around an individual indicates that the next of kin of that person died. The sighting of a black cat on the way to the hospital means that he or she may not survive the disease. The appearance of an owl near the home of the sick means imminent death for that person.
There are beliefs that certain dreams, odors, odd numbers pertains to death. For example, loosing a tooth in a dream is an omen that a relative will soon die. The sudden arrival of the scent of a burning candle (no lit candles nearby) means a relative just died. Avoiding taking photograph of three persons together (to avoid the death of the one placed in the middle). Lifting the children related to the dead over the casket before burial to hinder the ghost of the dead from visiting the children.
Beliefs and customs differs from province to province. I don’t know if my beliefs is also theirs.
Tagged with: Filipino Culture • Funerals In The Philippines • Living In The Philippines
Filed under: Filipino Culture
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I should have never told Jessie she was writing Southern in her last post because I thought it was adorable to see a Filipina using Southern slang. haha. I told her she’d pick it up because Southern is the best way to talk. In fact, I don’t know why I write about the dollar so much, after all, I’m still using confederate money.
Hmmm, I may be rich soon if the USA folds like so many say. 
haha
Hi Rusty, Don’t know if all you say about southern speak is true, but who knows?:)
I notice that Jessie uses a lot of words in her descriptions that are Tagalog in origin. I’m thinking that maybe her place in Leyte/Samar was closer to Luzon, and had a more Tagalog influence language-wise. Does she agree that that’s true too?
Here is just some extra info that I’ve observed and what you and others might want to know. In Cebu, the nine day vigil is called a novena, or the Tagalog word pasiyam, being siyam ka adlaw in Bisaya. Besides the reasons that Jessie mentions, another important reason that many family members, friends and neighbors staying up and awake during the vigil is that it helps to protect and keep the deceased person’s spirit company as they are in a kind of limbo state until passing on to the afterlife.
Limos is the Bisaya word for what Jessie explains is abuloy in Tagalog. Money that would help defray the costs for feeding visitors to the novena, and other costs etc. I haven’t heard of part of gambling monies going toowards the limos, but I guess as you both describe, customs vary from place to place.
Of course how elaborate a funeral is is also based on how much money the family has to work with. In Cebu, embalming and limosine services of the well known and often used Cosmopolitan Funeral home might be used even out in the province if the budget allows. Otherwise, many poor folks will not be embalmed, and buried in three days, although the novena can still continue. For the deceased family who lives in the mountains in the province, a large truck might be hired to bring many family members and friends down the mountainside to the town cemetery.
For the well-off in the city, there are now in Cebu very modern and fancy funeral homes that along with burials, even now offer cremation, which was once unknown, unheard of or unacceptable for a deceased person’s remains in the Philippines.
My guess on the Tagalog is that not many people speak Waray so i would think Waray Waray would probably use a lot of Tagalog.
When were in Palawan, the language is more Tagalog and Spanish but the van driver told us it is becoming more Tagalog and most speak pure Tagalog now.
Jessie kept speaking Bisaya but finally shifted into Tagalog. When we got back to Cebu, she was still stuck in Tagalog mode.
Hi queeniebee, i agree with your observations. I lean more to tagalog than bisaya.Perhaps I should lean more to bisaya since i live here, hahaha.
Cant leave the dead alone until its buried. Cant throw the trash either, i forgot whats the reason behind that.
As for the gambling money, there are some who would donate half of their winnings and there are others who took advantage of the situation and just gamble away for the sake of gambling.
Hi Jessie,
Your way of speaking is perfectly fine, I was just giving those extra words for anyone interested in the Bisaya version who like me are not native speakers. I for sure am still not knowing of all the words that are involved!
It’s lucky that many Filipinos like you included, can so easily adapt and learn the different languages and dialects that they might come across as they travel for work, school or to re-locate to a new home. We both see that bordering or being near to other islands can affect how people use the language. Besides the use of some Tagalog words, doesn’t Waray also sound like a little different sounding Bisaya? Sort of like Bohol’s Bisaya is sounding different too, with a more “J” sound to words? Then you hear Bisaya spoken in parts of Negros and Mindanao, and it’s amazing how much Tagalog is blended in! It can be confusing for everybody sometimes:)
As you’ve explained, there is so much to learn about the many customs and folklore of the Philippines. In my observation, death as in birth is treated by everyone as all part of the natural life cycle here. There doesn’t seem to be the same fear and taboo that many Americans carry when dealing with death and dying..
Take care, Queenie
Hi Queenie, Waray is a completely different language. when we first got her, she understood almost none of it.
Her boys picked it up fast and the little one speaks Cebuano.
Cebuano\visayan\bisaya (and other names for it) changes quite a bit from city to city. The further apart they are the more than change. I say that not because I speak it, I don’t. Out ya ya told me there are “many visayas.” I”ve seen her have problems understanding others speaking the same language when she’s chatting on Yahoo. I don’t think that happens a lot ,I ususally don’t know what she is saying.
Just saw her write, I doh’t follow your dialect. when she changed back to english