Grave ‘branding’: Unique way of honoring the dead

FAVORITE BRANDS. Members of the Relleve family of Oas town in Albay remember their departed father by painting his tomb with his favorite brands: Adidas for 2013, Ferrari for 2014, Starbucks for 2015, Johnnie Walker for 2017, and Lacoste for 2017. (Photo courtesy of Angel Roa Relleve via PNA)

LEGAZPI CITY — Most of us Filipinos, particularly Catholics, remember our departed loved ones on All Saints’ or All Souls’ Day by cleaning their graves, painting it white, placing fresh flowers on top, then lighting candles for an overnight vigil. Sometimes, singing the departed’s favorite songs is part of the ritual.

But a family in Albay honors their dead in quite a unique way — by painting the tomb of their father with his favorite brands and colors while he was still alive. They call their own tradition “grave branding”.

Angel Roa Relleve, a nurse working in Metro Manila, told the Philippine News Agency on Monday that she recently dreamed of her father who died seven years ago. Reading it as a sign, she filed a leave of absence from her work and went to her hometown of Oas in Albay province to visit his grave.

Angel narrated that every year just before “Undas,” she and her family hired a painter who could draw and paint their father’s tomb with his favorite brands of apparel, liquor and even coffee shop. She said this has been their family tradition for six years now.

She said her father, Jose Reodique Relleve, who died in 2011, was a government employee. “We remember him as jolly, a joker, loving though disciplinarian,” she recalled.

Angel said that in 2011, her father’s grave was decorated with black, white and red stripes; in 2012, with Egyptian-inspired colors of white silver and gold, combined with stars and moon figures.

She said after 2012, they had the tomb drawn with different popular brands. “Adidas for 2013, Ferrari for 2014, Starbucks for 2015, Black Label Johnnie Walker for 2016, and Lacoste for 2017,” Angel narrated.

She said for this year, they would have the tomb designed with the famous perfume brand “Bulgari”.

Angel admitted that their grave branding has been drawing attention as well as laughter from other people visiting the graves of their loved ones inside their town cemetery.

“We don’t mind. What we want is a unique way of remembering our departed father. We found it most fitting to his character while he was still with us,” Angel said.