My Vintage Collection -- Finally!

All these years I've been wanting to collect something vintage and many things came to mind. 

A candelabra? 
Some of them are too "draculaish" and scary, so no. 
  

Old bottles? 
Way too rare and expensive, scratch that.


Antique Dolls?

What if "Chukie" does exist? Nevermind.

Old Tin Cans?
Didn't work out.

Books? 
I've had storage problems thrice, so I'll give this a pass. 

Figurines?
The old ones looked like they're just pretending to be inanimate and sneak out in the middle of the night and watch you sleep every full moon or holloween and again, what if  "Chuckie" is true? -- I'm not taking any chances. NO.

...and finally (which is right under my nose all this time as I grew up with Pyrex wares) this: 

vintage Pyrex and Corelle coordinates. Yes! These will be it.  In fact, these lovely darlings are the very first items on my collection. I got them yesterday (thank you craigslist!).  The pattern is called Crazy Daisy/Spring Blossom from 1970. 

Perfectly fits me well. My love for cooking, my favorite place in the house is the kitchen and most of all, I'd rather be on a flea market than be in a mall where everything is new, artificial and really expensive. 

I love good old stuff. So why not? 

Trick or Treat...

That's the husband...he was a zombie on their office holloween party. We were too desperate on choosing what character would he be and he finally decided to be a zombie.

With my little make-up skill, voila! I created a monster...rawr! I'm glad you guys love it! Till next holloween!

Holloween...Cauayanon Style: "Treat-and-more-Treats!"

"Kalag-Kalag" is how we Ilonggos call holloween. From the word "Kalag" which is the direct translation of soul or spirit.

As for the repeatition of the word, my guess is that our ancestors might have playfully repeated the word, to sugarcoat the "scare" that it implies and to make it sound more festive . (Somebody please enlighten me on this?)

In the Philippines we celebrate holloween every 1st of November otherwise known as the "All Soul's Day".(ohhhh, I smell wonderful chidlhood memories again)

When I was a kid, every "kalag-Kalag" my family used to visit my mother's hometown in Cauayan, Negros Occidental to pay a visit to my grandmother Consing's tomb and other relatives who passed-away.

A usual "November 1st" goes like this: In the morning, my titos (uncles) would go to the cementery to tidy-up the my grandmother's tomb for the visitors while my titas and my mother are at the kitchen making all these classic sticky rice menus that I would never trade for any gourmet meals in the world. It is a Filipino belief that these sticky rice delicacies will keep the family more closer for every year that comes.

In the afternoon, the neighborhood becomes quieter as everyone heads to the cementery. To light candles, say prayers and offer flowers to dead loved-ones and relatives and be back at home before dawn.

Until a few years back when I blogged about this on Friendster, I realized Cauayanons do have their own version of "trick or treat". However, it was more of a "Treat and more Treats!". My cousins, me with my parents, titas or older cousins would go to a relative's home and yell outside their doors "mangalag-kalag kami!" (we want to celebrate holloween).  Of course, being hospitable as we are, the host gladly let us in for the treats. However, those are not m&m's, hershey's, skittles nor any candy, nope!...it was waaayyy better!

We get warm milk, Taho (ginger tea),  suman, valenciana, ibos, bihon - except for the bihon, these are sticky rice cooked in different ways. (Ask Mr. Google, he knows a lot about this). Then laughters, stories -- ghost stories then fills the table until its time for you to visit another home. You could go to as much homes as you want, as long as you still have room to fill your stomach coz you have to eat once you went in someone's house. Indeed that's lotsa treats!

I hope that this is still being practiced today as this is one rare practice among Filipinos. Happy Holloween everyone!