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Angels in stone Guardians of the dead

Written by DeadGirl
Thursday, 28 October 2004
By RAOUL J. CHEE KEE, Senior Reporter October 28, 2004 At the risk of coming across as eccentric, I actually look forward to visiting cemeteries particularly those that "offer" more than the usual gravestones indicating the birth and death of their occupants. Ornate mausoleums, distressed female figures clad in loose robes and somber-looking angels are just some of the details I look for when I go to a cemetery. Every year around this time, the figure of a demon standing over an angel in some provincial cemetery north of Manila is flashed on TV or printed in some newspapers. If I remember correctly, this role-reversal doesn't mean that evil triumphed over good but that death was inescapable part of life. Last year, my friend and I joined a walking tour led by Carlos Celdran of the North Cemetery and the Chinese Cemetery. The skies were overcast that day and many of us had come armed with umbrellas. When the rains finally fell, we eased our way between tombs and gingerly jumped over puddles, all the while listening to our guide as he pointed out "famous" tombs. There were a couple of times during the tour when my mind would drift off and I would just stand there motionless, peering at certain angel statues that looked particularly dolorous. During our yearly trips to Laoag, my mother's hometown, I make it a point to drop by the Campo Santo. There, I visit our dead and say a quick prayer at the small chapel made of crumbling clay bricks. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to go to Macau for a series of talks on the historical trade relations between Macau and the Philippines. While my companions consisting of academicians attended the daylong presentations, I would quietly slip out to explore the island on my own. On one of my solo excursions, I momentarily got lost amid the ice cream-colored buildings off Senado Square, the city center. I wanted to visit the old Protestant cemetery on Praca LuÃƒÂs de CamÃƒÂµes. When I finally found it, I was rewarded with an island of angel statuary in a sea of city buildings. The almost 200-year-old cemetery which also houses the remains of some members of the English East India Company is located between the Canossian Girls' School and the CamÃƒÂµes Museum. It was originally set up in 1814 although the first burials only took place seven years later in 1821. Prior to this, non-Catholics were interred on the hills around Macau before they were disinterred and transferred to the new plots. Atop the hilly cemetery is a small English chapel with arched entryways. Surrounding it is a sunken garden with tombs shaded by frangipani and bauhinia trees. There were no other people that day, save for the caretaker who allowed me to roam up and down the cemented walkways, taking pictures of the more interesting statues. When I met up with my traveling companions later that day and told them where I had been, they were quite surprised and, I think, a bit bothered. They really shouldn't have worried. While they had been brushing up on historical trade relations, I, too, had been busy with my own history lesson. http://bworld.com.ph/weekender/lifestyle/lifestyle2.html

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Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries