Bohol cemetery visitors embrace smoke ritual to ward off spirits

TAGBILARAN CITY — As All Saints' Day commemorations conclude in Bohol's cemeteries, visitors in Barangay Taloto perform a final ritual before departing: walking through billows of smoke in a practice known locally as "palina." The tradition, rooted in folk beliefs across the Philippines, is believed to cleanse visitors of malevolent spirits and negative energy accumulated during their time among the graves. The smoke ritual represents one of many cultural practices Filipinos maintain during the annual observance of All Saints' Day, blending Catholic commemoration with indigenous spiritual customs. For cemetery-goers in the Bohol community, the practice serves as both a spiritual safeguard and a symbolic boundary between the realm of the deceased and the living world. The enduring tradition underscores how local communities continue to weave ancestral beliefs into modern-day observances, preserving cultural identity across generations.