The Fort Worth Press - Filipinos brave crowds, flooding for All Saints' Day cemetery visits

USD -
AED 3.673005
AFN 68.386442
ALL 93.021933
AMD 389.349314
ANG 1.803734
AOA 913.000031
ARS 1002.721397
AUD 1.53358
AWG 1.8
AZN 1.702057
BAM 1.854577
BBD 2.020785
BDT 119.602116
BGN 1.858799
BHD 0.376916
BIF 2956.030306
BMD 1
BND 1.344124
BOB 6.930721
BRL 5.790848
BSD 1.000863
BTN 84.433613
BWP 13.672612
BYN 3.275301
BYR 19600
BZD 2.017372
CAD 1.39639
CDF 2864.999911
CHF 0.88374
CLF 0.035265
CLP 973.069559
CNY 7.241401
CNH 7.24719
COP 4396.59
CRC 508.251983
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 104.558213
CZK 24.0877
DJF 178.22092
DKK 7.087555
DOP 60.364405
DZD 133.750861
EGP 49.678296
ERN 15
ETB 124.782215
EUR 0.950275
FJD 2.269701
FKP 0.789317
GBP 0.791103
GEL 2.740301
GGP 0.789317
GHS 15.887842
GIP 0.789317
GMD 71.000247
GNF 8627.008472
GTQ 7.726299
GYD 209.391416
HKD 7.782965
HNL 25.291226
HRK 7.133259
HTG 131.472895
HUF 390.756993
IDR 15903.25
ILS 3.732285
IMP 0.789317
INR 84.493503
IQD 1311.043259
IRR 42092.505939
ISK 138.290123
JEP 0.789317
JMD 158.639851
JOD 0.709302
JPY 154.656495
KES 129.249619
KGS 86.506766
KHR 4038.536303
KMF 467.499881
KPW 899.999621
KRW 1398.125025
KWD 0.30759
KYD 0.834076
KZT 497.17423
LAK 21976.521459
LBP 89633.50686
LKR 291.187013
LRD 181.150969
LSL 18.152914
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.883414
MAD 9.998293
MDL 18.214834
MGA 4685.233124
MKD 58.48862
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3397.999946
MOP 8.024142
MRU 39.785889
MUR 46.412517
MVR 15.460006
MWK 1735.461174
MXN 20.325297
MYR 4.464971
MZN 63.950307
NAD 18.152914
NGN 1680.590024
NIO 36.829479
NOK 11.03348
NPR 135.09167
NZD 1.703345
OMR 0.385001
PAB 1.000778
PEN 3.7981
PGK 4.029035
PHP 59.039501
PKR 278.226704
PLN 4.126669
PYG 7838.117183
QAR 3.649699
RON 4.729799
RSD 111.205995
RUB 101.000437
RWF 1380.157217
SAR 3.754257
SBD 8.355531
SCR 13.619994
SDG 601.497088
SEK 11.030315
SGD 1.343699
SHP 0.789317
SLE 22.575045
SLL 20969.504736
SOS 571.975839
SRD 35.43028
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.757041
SYP 2512.529858
SZL 18.142596
THB 34.647019
TJS 10.658746
TMT 3.5
TND 3.159078
TOP 2.342102
TRY 34.465475
TTD 6.776157
TWD 32.567494
TZS 2652.359028
UAH 41.269214
UGX 3693.413492
UYU 42.784805
UZS 12854.406494
VES 46.433371
VND 25422.5
VUV 118.722009
WST 2.791591
XAF 622.001915
XAG 0.032192
XAU 0.000375
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.761528
XOF 622.001915
XPF 113.087675
YER 249.924998
ZAR 18.116198
ZMK 9001.198706
ZMW 27.697968
ZWL 321.999592
  • RBGPF

    59.6900

    59.69

    +100%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0800

    6.61

    -1.21%

  • SCS

    -0.0200

    13.07

    -0.15%

  • BCC

    -0.7700

    137.41

    -0.56%

  • CMSD

    -0.0836

    24.26

    -0.34%

  • JRI

    -0.0300

    13.23

    -0.23%

  • BCE

    -0.3100

    27

    -1.15%

  • CMSC

    -0.0450

    24.52

    -0.18%

  • RIO

    -0.0400

    62.39

    -0.06%

  • NGG

    -0.3100

    63.27

    -0.49%

  • RELX

    -0.1800

    45.11

    -0.4%

  • GSK

    -0.1100

    33.35

    -0.33%

  • BTI

    0.1500

    37.08

    +0.4%

  • AZN

    -0.6000

    63.2

    -0.95%

  • VOD

    0.0200

    8.94

    +0.22%

  • BP

    -0.0100

    29.08

    -0.03%

Filipinos brave crowds, flooding for All Saints' Day cemetery visits
Filipinos brave crowds, flooding for All Saints' Day cemetery visits / Photo: © AFP

Filipinos brave crowds, flooding for All Saints' Day cemetery visits

Devout Filipinos clutching candles and flowers poured into cemeteries across the heavily Catholic Philippines on Friday to pay tribute to loved ones on All Saints' Day.

Text size:

Hundreds of thousands flocked to sprawling graveyards in the capital Manila while others waded through floodwaters left by a deadly tropical storm to quietly pray and celebrate the lives of departed relatives.

At Manila North Cemetery, 64-year-old Virginia Flores lit candles in front of her grandmother's "apartment", the local term for tombs packed tightly together and stacked metres high.

"This is my way of remembering her life and our shared memories when she was alive, so I visit her every year," Flores told AFP.

Erlinda Sese, 52, was joined by her sister and grandchildren to offer prayers for their deceased loved ones.

"Even if they are gone, today is a reminder that our love for them will never fade," Sese said as she gently laid a bouquet of white flowers on a tombstone.

Police Brigadier General Arnold Ibay, tasked with handling crowd control in the capital, said he expected almost a million visitors at Manila North Cemetery alone, where people had begun lining up before dawn to enter.

In Pampanga, a low-lying province 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of the capital, AFP reporters on Thursday saw people trudge through murky floodwaters to visit the submerged Masantol municipal cemetery.

The visitors were making the pilgrimage barely a week after Tropical Storm Trami unleashed landslides and flooding that killed at least 150 people and left more than a dozen missing.

"Visiting dead loved ones is very important to Filipinos. This has been our tradition and culture," 34-year-old Mark Yamat told AFP.

"Even though the cemetery is submerged here, we will continue to visit."

In the devout Southeast Asian country, the day is a public holiday to allow for travel to far-flung gravesites across the archipelago.

Maria Cayanan, 52, was supposed to light candles in front of her parents' tombstone in Pampanga, but the floodwaters prevented her from reaching their burial plots.

"We will just light the candles at home," Cayanan told AFP.

"We have to visit their graves, so they know they are not forgotten."

S.Palmer--TFWP