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layout: post
title: Lost Traditions
categories: personal
published: false
---
Tita Annie's funeral was a Mormon service, hymns and prayers and eulogies
familiar to us Catholics though we follow a different creed.  There were no old
women left to insist on observing the old ways, and besides this was the city
where provincial traditions and _pamahiin_ no longer had a place.  And so no
chickens were sacrificed, no clay pots were broken, no faces were washed in
_gulgol_ water obtained from the nearest river that survived in the summer
heat.  I suppose it would have been inappropriate for Tita anyway.  We observed
all the old traditions for Lola Mary but she had lived well into her 90's, old
enough to be truly a part of those times when the community performed such
things to grieve.

Part of me feels sad that the old ways are dying, but I know that all is well
as long as newer rituals take their place.  The main point, after all, is to
remind us of our togetherness.  We come together when someone dies, and it
reminds us that we still have friends and family who remain.