3. Filipino Traditions
Filipino death rituals are many and varied and would strike most of us as pretty odd.
In the Apayao region, it is customary to bury your dead under you kitchen floor. In the rural areas of Cavite, a dying person selects their favourite tree shortly before their departure and a small hut is built next to it. After their death, the tree is hollowed out and they are entombed within it in the upright position.
A grisly ritual in Benguet dictates that the dead person is sat out on the front porch with a blindfold over their eyes for eight days after death. They are tied with ropes to ensure that their sitting position looks as natural as possible, as though they’ve simply nodded off.
The day before burial, the dead person’s life story is chanted to them by village elders and then they are directed to heaven by hitting bamboo sticks together.
The nearby Tinguian people will do something similar, but they will also dress their dead in their best clothes and place a lit cigarette in their mouth so that they can enjoy one last smoke before they go to the spirit world (presumably heaven is a no smoking zone).
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