My family is not big on Halloween. The trick or treat activity only caught on in the country the past few years. In my city, Halloween parties are usually organized by business establishments. The closest thing Halloween-ish we do is clean our loved ones tomb in time for the All Souls Day. That is exactly what we did on October 30.
My uncle and I helped clean the family mausoleum. Yes, the roof needs to be painted.
This is how the memorial park looks like. It is a typical Philippine cemetery.
There are grand mausoleums at the entrance which I do not have a picture to show.
Since time immemorial, this cemetery’s lone road is unpaved.
It looks okay in the photo but imagine what this looks like on All Souls Day. Vehicles are parked on both sides of the road. There is only one lane to use and we have to exit on a dirt road with a high possibility of being stuck in the mud. Just hope and pray it does not rain. Mind you, this is a private cemetery. At the present rate, people pay hundreds of thousands of pesos to get a memorial lot here. You would think the owner can get the road paved. No, not in this cemetery.
You would understand why we have a memorial park envy with the other private cemetery. After cleaning the mausoleum, we dropped by the other cemetery just to check out the place. This was recently developed. We have long bought our cemetery lot even before the owners thought about developing the place so buying a lot here is no longer an option. In fact, the owners still have loved ones buried in our cemetery. (When I say “our cemetery”, it means the cemetery where my loved ones are buried. We do not own the cemetery.)
This is a first mausoleum that welcomed us when we entered the other memorial park.
This is a mausoleum that the owner built for his son who died in his sleep.
See the lake up there? There are ducks and koi.
While we were sitting in that small wharf near the lake, we were waiting for the koi to surface. They did not. It was not feeding time yet.
Who would have thought this is a cemetery.
You can rent the cottage if your family needs a space to host memorial prayers and activities.
It even has a playground for the kids.
This does not look a mausoleum but it is!
Below are the rows of mausoleums. The roads are paved!
There are affordable options. One can buy memorial plots here (no, not in the mountains). The green lawn in the foreground are memorial plots.
Now you understand why we envy this cemetery. 😀
The advantage of being in our cemetery? There is this huge mango tree full of fruits. The people inside the tomb underneath the mango tree used to be our neighbors.
Kids who lived near the cemetery said that it is okay to pick the fruits when I lamented how I wanted to eat those mangoes. And so we did. (Yes, my cousin also wanted to show off his tattoo.)
From cemetery to the plate, this is the spookiest thing we did for Halloween. 😀
ganda namang sementeryo ito. peaceful and relaxing
What a terrific and quite spooky post. Both sites look quite lovely and had colorful mausoleums. But I must say that the second cemetery site looked like a country club; very fancy. As for the mangoes, sorry, I’ll pass. Lol! Te he!
Eliz
The mangoes were good, Eliz! hehe
hahahaha.. spooky post in deed.. those mausoleums are beautiful
The place is so relaxing. You cannot even think that you are inside a cemetery, unlike others that are very congested already.
Nice naman mga mausoleum. they look like celebrity houses haha
The 2 mausoleum photo you posted looks so grand! My gosh! There’s a mountain view?! Neat.
Ang ganda naman dyan sis. Malinis as compared doon sa amin saka parang di masyado crowded tingnan. Para lang namamasyal. The best part is may mangga pa. Nangangasim tuloy ako.
wow grand mausoleums, post is kinda eerie hehe, but the place looked like a golf course too 🙂
Super nice naman ng cemetery na yan, look so peaceful.. sarap ng Mangga , Sis:)
Wow! What a beautiful scenery, overlooking mountain, At first glance you will never think that its a cemetery. Very peaceful indeed.
what a huge place for the kids to explore! hahaha! kasi when my cousins and i were young, we would tag along the cemetery to play.
sadly, these past few years we opt not to go with the crowd during november 1 and 2. so we usually visit either a day before or a day after the occasion. plus my brother’s urn is just at home so we’re instead commemorating all souls’ day and his death anniversary there.
more practical especially when the cemetery is crowded.
When my eyes caught the mangoes, I had forgotten about the museleos !
That’s a wonderful cemetery ah. I envy that as well.
wow, what a beautiful cemetery. yes, it looks like a golf course nga. but really, i instantly forgot about all the beautiful mausoleums when I saw the mangoes na binudburan ng asin, yay! I’m drooling right now! haha!
Newly developed private cemeteries are really beautiful compared to public na sobra-sobrang sik-sik..
That’s a really beautiful private cemetery. I agree it doesn’t look like one. Here there are no more burial plots but niches instead due to land constrains.
wow, the mausoleums look like residences. where is this place, kat? each must have cost a fortune.
Hi, Linnor. This is Butuan Garden Memorial Estate.
Wow. The mausoleums at the last part are very luxurious ha.
That memorial garden is very clean and organized. Looks like they spent a bit of time to plan about it, unlike in some cemeteries where tombs are in haphazard state. You’re brave, eating mangoes grown there… 🙂
Wow! I’m speechless. Especially that mausoleum where his son died in sleep. In front of the lake pa. Hanep mga mausoleum these days na pala, parang bahay lang. Pabonggahan narin noh?
Hope you/your loved ones are safe in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.
Sending prayers and blessings your way!
Elizabeth
We are okay, Eliz. We were spared. Thank you, God!
Cool place… I like the pond with the ducks and your punchline photo just made me drool!!!
Oh wow, Butuan? The place looks like a resort for crying out loud! My morbid thought is that this is where I would want my body to lie — maybe in another 80 years or so. 😀
That is indeed a very beautiful resting place.