They say every place has their own unique way on how they do things. Aside from celebrating Robbie’s birthday, conquering the cave connection, trekking terraces and seeing falls, another reason why our itchy feet brought us to the mountains during this All Soul’s Day holiday is to witness Panagapoy.
I first encounter the word Panagapoy from Lakwatsero.com and upon seeing the photos and reading trivia about this “only in Sagada” experience, it instantly ignited the curious cat in me…”I NEED TO SEE THIS”, yes! That’s how badly I wanted to attend and take part of the tradition.
But what is Panagapoy? Panagapoy which literally mean “to make fire” in the local language is an old tradition of the Igorots in remembering the dead.
The Tradition
An Angelican priest first give a liturgical service at the Church of St. Mary’s the Virgin. After the mass, residents walked to the nearby cemetery to witness the blessing of the graves.
Residents brought with them a handful of Saleng --- long thin splinters of pitched pine that are blessed by the priest earlier. (a practice unique here in Sagada).
By sunset, the residents will then light their saleng, producing small bonfires in front of the graves of their love once. (saeng replaces the candles that people from the low lands use when remembering their dead relatives).
When we arrived at the cemetery, most of the graves have now small bonfires on it. The view was incredible; it was all new to me. We went on exploring the cemetery separately, taking in everything that we are witnessing. I went from one grave to the other, checking out how families of the dead do All Soul’s day.
On one instance, I saw the BBC team filming/documenting the whole event. I guess they will be feature this sometime on the news.
I took a few more shots and then I call it a day, the smoke from the bonfire irritates my eyes that I’m crying like I was a family member mourning on one of the graves. None the less, Panagapoy is another tradition I recommend for you to attend. Its different from what we practice in the low lands but have the same purpose, to remember the dead and communicate with them through prayers.
7 comments:
Naks may special mention ako! :D
Actually, nung pumunta kami ni Ivan sa Baguio, pinapalabas na ito sa BBC kasi nakita namin dun sa isang resto.
Ang ganda talaga ng Panag-apoy. Kakaiba yung feeling. Feeling ko na-bless din ako. Hahaha.
Waah! Andami ko nang backlog! Wala pa kahit isa sa Sagada!!!! Sorry I missed this :(
wow! Galing naman!
It is "saleng" not saeng. Saleng is a pine tree variety--the ones you see sometimes burned. They easily get burned because of the flammable sap.
First time to hear about this tradition, galing talaga ng timing nyo :)
@robx oh! ang bilis naman ng BBC naks! di ba tayo nakita or nahagip ng camera nila? lol
@aleah soon malapit na! haha sayang sana sumunod kayo
@ding thanks sir, yun kasi naalala ko but i made the corrections =)
@claire uu nga sobrang good timing. tuloy mahal na namin ang Sagada hehe
if there's something that i have yet to witness in sagada... this will be it. hopefully next year.
@dong matutupad din yan...
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