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Trip or treat?
I am writing this column at dawn in the claustrophobic Centennial terminal pre departure area. This usually calm airport is now packed with travelers to the provinces for All Souls Day. Like many of these people, I may have been tricked into paying for an outrageously expensive plane ticket as promo fares are scarce. We succumb to airlines making a killing this season to make up for times when they bring fares almost six feet below the ground any other time of the year.
And it’s not just air travel that’s upbeat. Ships have also filled up decks with passengers visiting departed (and undeparted) loved ones. Ships are even in danger of overloading with the deluge of passengers that’s why coast guards render double shifts counting heads to avoid sending people to watery graves instead.
Buses have also been squeezing in more people and cargo since Monday, which we’ve been covering in the news. Security (both dog and human) tirelessly guard bus terminals to make travelers feel safe.
Those going out of town by car hit the roads today as well. Metro traffic is expected to ease except near cemeteries and malls where crowds shall congregate over the weekend, my son included. I left with my wife the gargantuan task of choosing his creepy costume and deciding which Halloween party to attend. This is the second trick or treat party I will be missing as I’m traveling to Iloilo to visit my father’s grave. Of course, I am also looking forward to meeting up with the living… family and friends I haven’t been with in a long time, who all make this harried trip worthwhile.
The week of All Souls is one of only three occasions in a year that Filipinos travel heavily. The other two are Christmas and Holy Week.
But of all three it’s All Souls Day travel that gives me… the spooks!
People are generally in a jolly mood during Christmas even if travel can also be unbearable. Christmas exoduses are driven by family gatherings, festivities and gift-giving (and receiving) so people don’t seem to mind the small inconveniences of the trip, paid for by Christmas or 13th month bonuses. All Souls Day is just out of the budget.
Holy Week travel on the other hand is a journey of “soul searching”, hence punishing conditions throughout the trip may even be welcome. Cramped terminals, costly tickets and the sweltering summer heat are really a semblance of suffering and atonement in keeping with the season. Besides Lenten travel is usually the start of a grand getaway to some place summery for a lot people. It’s really a party masquerading as penitence.
But All Souls Day travel is just one horror story after another as we put up with stressful trips year after year to be with the dead. It is a break but hardly a vacation. It’s plain harassment.
A woman passenger ahead of me at check in asked to be allowed to carry a humongous flower arrangement into the cabin, like flowers don’t bloom in the provinces. In the adjacent check in counter, another family pleaded that each member be permitted to “hand carry” one of several huge cans of biscuits they’re taking to the provinces. I also saw a couple, cargo in tow, fighting as they wrestled their way into a plane that’s about to leave. At the ticket office people wait in long queues to take their chance on the next flight to oblivion. Everywhere passengers struggle to gather themselves, their baggage and their wits.
At our respective destinations await the more exhausting cemetery trips, picnics and reunions on the feast of the dead. In cemeteries, tombs are waiting to be cleaned, repainted, lit and adorned. Even with our dead, we Filipinos are always festive. It’s good that drinking and gambling are prohibited otherwise more living will join the dead in subsequent stabbing and shooting sprees.
And of course, there’s food. Favorite Filipino delicacies such as “suman” et al are also cooked (or purchased) at all costs pushing the price of sticky rice and “gata” to prohibitive levels just like that of flowers or candles.
More often than not an All Souls Day traveler makes last minute shopping for delicacies or “pasalubong” for those he left behind before going through another round of travel hassles, and arriving home dead -tired.
