How come that in our culture there are simply a lot of superstitions surrounding death, some of them even sounding really absurd? We are all familiar with the superstition that one must consume all food or beverage taken from a wake and must at no occasion bring it home with him as this would merit ill luck.
My relatives have taken that superstition to a new height. Apparently, they also thought that one must have no left-overs after the burial and since there were a lot of raw meat left in the fridge, well, they had to cook them all and serve them to everyone.
Then again, another superstition I have recently heard, and an even more absurd one, is that when a woman is widowed because it was her husband who died, then she should be quarantined (parang virus lang eh) in the sense that no other married woman must lay eyes on her lest they also lose their husbands. Now, ain’t that absurd! If it is a person’s time to die, it is his time to die. Period.
Well to satisfy superstitious people, my lola gave way to such practice but when they were all gone, she still met with her daugher-in-laws and even my aunt who is recently married. How would she really live if she won’t be surrounded by people. Grief, especially one that begets loneliness, should always make a person be surrounded by people so as to ward off the lonely feeling. So why should someone be quarantined just because of silly superstitions?
Well, this is afterall our culture. Superstitions make our culture colorful and lively. But if we let them rule our lives, then woe to us indeed.
