The Scent of success is now the scent of sadness

The month of May is almost over, and still the season of graduation in the Philippines since the post-pandemic change in the Academic calendar. My niece will be graduating on the 28th, and we are very excited about it.

It has been a custom for Filipinos to wear garlands or pin orchid flowers on their graduation gowns during this occasion. I was one of these enthusiasts, that’s why we have this beautiful orchid locally known as 'Sanggumay' in our backyard. Some may use ‘Waling-waling’, but since we have an abundant supply of Sanggumay, this was what we used, and so did our neighbors and village folks.

My grandmother planted them, and we have always been amused and delighted by their wonderful scent every time they bloom from March to May. The feeling is different when we wake up, smelling its scent. And because we associated it with graduation, we call this sweet scent the “scent of success”.

During our time, graduation day was not complete without ‘Sanggumay’ pinned on our toga. This has become symbolic over time, and everyone in my place knows it’s graduation season when the ‘Sanggumays’ are abloom, when the sweet scent of success is in the air, all over the house and the backyard. We often chose the purple ones for our white toga and the white ones for our blue or black toga. In our backyard, we have both the white and purple varieties. All of them were planted by my grandmother.

Years passed, my cousins and I, who used to live in my grandma's house, finished school and got our jobs, but the Sanggumays in the backyard are still there, giving off the sweet scent of success to our younger cousins, to our nephews and nieces, and this time to our kids.

There have been changes in the graduation culture in the country - the wearing of these beautiful graduation boutonniere seems to be gradually vanishing, or if not, the fresh flowers are being replaced with plastic ones.

This really tore my heart since, along with this change, were the memories of our dear grandma, which seemed to be drifting in the wind as well. She passed away in 2019 due to old age and sickness, and since then, the scent of Sanggumay has created a different message to us – that is, sadness and grief.

Coincidentally, she died in March, a perfect time when the Sanggumays started to bloom. During her wake, we could smell the sweet scent all over filling the air, giving us the feeling of grief and sorrow, knowing that it would be the last time when the Sanggumays were abloom with her in the house.

Thank you for taking the time to read my piece. I hope somehow it touched your heart. Some of our plants in the backyard have unique stories, mostly because my grandma planted them, while some of them vanished and died unnoticed. Some of these plants were even older than I. They are just amazing!

| photos are mine, edited in Canva |

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