ALORAN, a perspective KALAG-KALAG/ALL SOULS DAY

November 2nd is "adlaw sa mga kalag", all souls day. Traditionally, kids roam around the neighborhood looking for unripe papaya (kapayas hilaw). Our favourite place is the back of Aloran Central School main building, where some half-a-dozen papaya trees grow. We then peel them white and make skeleton-head out of it. At night time, we place them in a dark secluded place with a lit candle under it. So scary, you can scream. Young adults have different trippings. Houses those days, apart from a few concrete ones, were made of very light materials. Some wood, mostly bamboo, and it was easy to detach the stairs (hagdanan) from the house itself. Some old folks actually fall from their houses. Before you get into my aunt's gate, there was a canal, not that deep but not not that shallow either. No culvert, no "imbornal", instead there was a 3'X4' taytayan. One kalag-kalag night, my cousins took it out. Of all people living in the house, it was my aunt who fell into the abyss. Long story short, she reported it to the Police, and there never have been a similar incident since. Mr Generoso Cuajotor, aka Boongon, go around in his Willy's dragging empty cans. The noise was almost unbearable, but who would complain? Sir Boongon (May God bless his soul), gave us kids of our generation memories that we fondly talk about into our adulthood. A day or two before the day, at the cemeteries, people are busy making-over the resting places of their loveones. The smell of paint and burning grasses are all over the place. On the very day, the cemeteries come to life. One thing about cemeteries is that everyone has someone residing there. The whole day, cemeteries are virtual picnic gounds. In every kalag-kalag, talking about food, BIKO and BINIGNIT are the two leading names. The practice of putting food on the graves was prevalent those days, though hardly-heard of now-a-days. Besides Town Fiesta in September, cemeteries during Kalag-kalag is the best place to find long-lost friends and relatives. Fast forward to 1980s. My son who was four or maybe five and the family were driving by a cemetery. The driver threw a question. How many people do you think are buried in there? He brain-stormed for a while then answered, must be ten thousand or more. The driver answered, "all of them". Everyone in the car thought it was hilarious, but him. To these days, he couldn't believe he didn't have the right answer to that question. Another traditional thing you see during Kalag-kalag is the sharing of meat among members of a Minagsoon. Typically, members of a Minagsoon put up money into a "pot", make it grow by lending it to members with reasonable interest rate. Come Kalag-kalag, they collect the money, buy pigs and share its meat. Log-in to FB, and you will notice that some Minagsoon still practice "karnehay". If you grew up in Ibabao in the 1960s, a Kalag-kalag story is incomplete without the mention of Manang Odon Arias. A big lady with an even bigger heart, always welcomes kids and youg adults with lots of goodies and BIKO of course, in her abode in what is now part of Dalisay, by the riverside which bears her name, "ilang Odon". God bless your soul Nang!