Commemorating the feasts of
Jenesses Caramelo displays different colored candles from Minglanilla town which she sells at Freedom Park in Cebu City. (CDN Photo Michelle Joy L. Padayhag)
All Saints and All Souls need not be limited to shades of white and violet.
Under a big umbrella that shades her stall in Freedom Park, Jenesses Caramelo sells multi-color candles.
She said they attract more customers because each color is associated with a particular symbol and meanings.
From her elders, she said she learned the meaning of one’s choice of color in their candles.
“Some choose based on their emotions and how they value a person. That’s how customers choose,” Caramelo said.
Pink candles are for dead female infants. Blue candles are for male infants.
“Some will buy red candles because these are for the people that you loved the most in your life,” said Caramelo, who started helping her mother to sell candles in her grade school days.
Her colored candles are sourced from Minglanilla town in southern Cebu, the “candle capital” of Cebu, she said, where most manufacturers are based.
For All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, Caramelo takes a leave from her job in a travel and tour agency to help her mother sell candles at Freedom Park.
She said there was no price increase for candles this year, which sell for P1 to P5.
Those mounted in glass holders are priced at P40 (Italian glass), P10 (vigil holder) P60 or P150 (metal and glass).
Meanwhile 50-year-old vendor Adela Adines decided to raise the price of her flowers by P10 for the special occasion.
She said a bundle of yellow mums costs P120 while a dozen rooster’s combs is priced at P40.
A dozen violet mums is P100, while 25 stalks of white mums is at P130. A bunch of five dozen red roses are sold at P130.
“So far we are not yet affected by the El Niño because of the rains that fell recently,” she said.
Adines said peak demand for flowers is in also in Chritmas, New Year’s Day and Valentine’s Day.
Her supply is delivered twice a week from the mountain barangay of Babag, Cebu City.
Adines and her husband have been selling flowers at Freedom Park in Cebu City for 30 years. The enterpise has helped support their five children and two grandchildren.
“Flowers can make people happy. They can be given as a gift to make people feel special,” she said.