"Gulgol" - Burial Rituals

As I have mentioned in my previous blog, I had been off-island for the week. My grandpa had passed so my family and I flew out to the Philippines for the funeral. We stay in the province of Natividad, Pangasinan. My grandpa was buried on Sunday. We walked under the heat of the sun from our house to the church and then from the church to the cemetery. There was a lot of crying, but nonetheless, it was a beautiful ceremony.

After the burial, we went back to our house where we washed our hands in a basin of water that had boiled leaves of guava. It was extremely hot. My brother was unaware and submerged both his hands quickly into the water. I felt bad for him, but we all laughed. Not sure why we had to wash our hands with this water, but I am guessing it had something to do with cleansing ourselves from visiting the cemetery. 

The next day is where things got a bit weird. This was my first time attending a funeral in the Philippines so my family told me we had to do some burial rituals. I am always willing to try new things for the experience, however, I wasn't too excited about going to the mountains to do some rituals. But it was tradition, so I obeyed. These burial rituals are called "Gulgol." (Cleansing ceremony) No one really explained what each activity meant, but I thought I heard it was to drive away the spirit of the dead relative that had recently been buried so they may go straight to heaven or any spirits that may have followed us from the cemetery.

In the morning, my family and I drove to the mountains by the river. They had a live chicken ride in the van with us and I had already guessed what was going to happen to that chicken. We had an empty basin and they cut the chicken's throat with a knife, letting all its blood pour into the basin. The chicken's blood was then mixed with ashes of burned rice straw and some wine. 

We then had the mixture poured onto our heads. My grandpa's wife (my grandma) was first, his children and in laws, then his grandchildren. Afterwards, we went into the river to wash the blood mixture. When we finished drying ourselves up, the chicken had to be cooked by the fire and the whole chicken was to be eaten by all of us. Mmm, organic!

 

My family and I went home to further continue the ritual. One of the elders placed oil in our foreheads in the same order as when we poured the blood mixtures on our heads. After the oil, we ate boiled bananas. These were not regular sweet bananas. They were small and tasted different. Once we finished the bananas, the burial rituals were complete. 

Although the ritual activities were a bit odd, I enjoyed experiencing them and keeping tradition. Now I have interesting stories to bring back with me and share.