The True Origin and Meaning of Undas

The twin feasts of All Saints Day and All Souls Day are popularly known in the Tagalog regions as Undas. With constant mainstream media usage of the word, many people in other areas of the Philippines have come to adopt Undas to refer to these feasts as well.

But what does it mean? What is its origin? Somebody on social media came up with an acronym: “Unos Dias de las Almas y de los Santos”, and it even went viral. Unfortunately, it is a hoax. No such “forgotten Spanish acronym” exists on any literature from the Spanish period.

Just recently, Father Denis S. Surban – who taught us sacred music at Mater Salutis College Seminary in Daraga, Albay, and now does research on Philippine Church history, especially about his beloved Catanduanes – posted a series of comments on my Facebook post on the topic. His comments may have just solved the mystery of Undas, with evidence to prove it.

He found this interesting entry on Rosalio Serrano’s Diccionario de Términos Comunes Tagalo-Castellano, published in 1854: “Ondás. Honras. – Ipag-ondás mo ang iyong ama. Has honras por tu padre.”

So Undas comes from the Spanish verb honrar, which means to honor, as in to honor the dead. It is conjugated in the second person, present tense, as honras.

Then he found another entry, this time from the Diccionario Hispano-Tagalog by Pedro Serrano y Laktaw (Rosalio Serrano’s son), published in 1889: “HONRA… pl. Misang patay.”

The plural form of the noun Honra, which is Honras, specifically refers to the Mass for the Dead, which could mean either the Funeral Mass or the Mass celebrated on All Souls Day. In Spanish, funeral rites is translated as honras funebres, and funeral honors, honras funerales.

Does this mean that the mystery has been solved? If so, Undas originally refers to the Mass for the Dead on All Souls Day. Over time it has come to mean the feast of All Souls Day itself, and then later the twin feasts on November 1 (Dia de Todos los Santos) and 2 (Dia de los Muertos).