The Dead, River Spirits, & a Magic Hat [Racialigious]
by Guest Contributor Alex Felipe originally published at AlexFelipe.com
Filipinos don’t celebrate Halloween, they instead have a day dedicated to the dead on 1 November, the Araw ng mga Patay [Day of the Dead]. It’s a holiday that is the perfect metaphor for Philippine spirituality: an imported Catholic holiday that hints at an animist past.
Having grown up in Canada I only just recently learned about this tradition, and I experienced my first Araw ng mga Patay only last year. I went to go visit my grandfathers graves, they had both died during the 90s and been brought back to the Phils.
The holiday is an odd one seen through the lens of a Filipino raised in Canada. Families head out to the cemetery to clean the tombs of relatives, bring food, flowers, light candles, and pray. But more or less it just seems like a day where everyone decides to have a family picnic—a picnic that just so happens to be in an insanely crowded cemetery.
It’s an odd sight to be honest. Drunk men playing cards on grave markers next to a family singing karaoke on a portable machine next to parents praying the rosary for a recently deceased child.
Strangely enough, it’s a generally mirthful holiday. There are fast food tents set up in the cemetery just for that day: McDonalds, Jollibee, Greenwich Pizza, Ando’s Chicken, and more—all in the middle of a cemetery.
To my foreign influenced eyes, this holiday seems light and fun; a nice way to remember the past, but in the Phils—despite how casual the atmosphere is—there is a real fear that to not pay respect at the grave of a family member would have severe repercussions from the spirit world.
It’s moments like these that really help remind me of our people’s animist past, and the very real connection to the spirit world that doesn’t exist here in Canada.
This past lives on despite, or perhaps more accurately, within the country’s Christian framework. As one Tala-andig tribal leader told me in during a visit to their community in 2005, “In our political system we have to go through channels–barangay captain up to the President. You can’t just talk to the President, first you have to go to the local barangay captain, then to the mayor, then the congressman, etc. It’s the same way with our beliefs. We start with the spirits and work our way up to [the Christian] God.”
I am particularly fascinated by our living family mythology. As a Filipino, even a Filipino in Canada, all our family histories are ripe with this folklore. I am proud to even have a little of it attached to me.
I’d like to share some of these stories with you, old stories that sometimes seem a world away, and make me nostalgic for a place I can’t remember, for spirits that I cannot recall…
My great-grandfather, my paternal lola’s father, was apparently a Spaniard (don’t hold it against me). My Mommy Es (as we call our grandma) tells me that he was an older man in his 50s when he married my great-grandmother who was 18. His name was Gabriel and he was a soldier with Spain when he was younger.
My grandmother didn’t know him very well, he died before she became a teen and he was stern man who only really interacted with his kids to discipline them. One thing she did remember about him was his magic hat.
This hat was one of the family anting-antings [magic talisman]. They were often amulets worn around the neck (most commonly they gave the wearer invincibility against a specific weapon), but they could be anything—in this case, a hat.
Mommy Es first told me about the magic hat in my teens when I was a massive comic book geek and it caught my imagination enough that I have never forgotten the story, and have never forgotten the sense of loss I felt for not having it—but I’m getting ahead of myself.
So he had a magic hat. This hat was said to have an amazing power: he could use it to transport himself anywhere on earth by simply putting on the hat and thinking about the place. It had an unusual caveat: it would only work if the wearer used it in a place where he was out of sight from watching eyes.
I was an atheist as a teen, and I didn’t really believe in its powers, but it intrigued me. Did one have to be completely out of sight or just have no one watching? How far was its range? Did you have to image the place so well that you couldn’t go anywhere that you hadn’t already been? And of course: why didn’t he use it to be a superhero?
The hat was lost during the war with Japan, after my great-grandfather had died. When my Lola’s family was forced to run to flee into the mountains it was left behind. I have no idea how such an important piece of magic could be left behind, I mean you’d think this hat would have been pretty damned useful during a war.
I, of course, also wondered how my Lola could believe in such an outlandish story—and she really believes it was real. She would tell me about how he walk into a room and just disappear or just appear out of no where when she thought she was alone. It’s all just a little creepy if you ask me—knowing that he was a Spaniard in a Philippines just recently free of Spain—to think that he would just appear and disappear randomly through my grandma’s childhood memories.
In the mountains my grandmother had a more dangerous run in with another creature of Filipino mythology.
Throughout my life I have always known my Lola to be afraid of rivers and creeks, it originates from the War and the time she was attacked by a river spirit. She tells the story of how she was in her early teens and went out to the river to fetch water. Usually one of the older family members did it but she felt she was old enough. Her family later found her by the river near dead.
They attribute the incident to a run-in with a river spirit that she forgot to ask permission from.
The theme of river spirits continued with me, but in an opposite direction. I’ve always loved small forest rivers and creeks. I can sit by them for hours.
My maternal Lola, we called her ‘Nanay’ [which means “mother”] loves to tell the story of how when I was a toddler I was always running away from home. At first they would get worried (I have no idea how a baby less than two could run away from home, but that’s the story), but they would always find me in the same place. I would run to the creek in the wooded area near our home and play with my friends the duende.
Duende were mischievous spirits that inhabited the land. While the name is Spanish, the spirits are Filipino, stemming from our animist tradition. Duende were mischievous and often played pranks on people. They could also be very dangerous if offended, and they were easily offended (as my Mommy Es’ story shows). But if you were good to them, they were very protective of you.
Nanay would say how she would often find me there and she would see strange things: like how I would apparently be playing with spirits she couldn’t see, she would see me splash water at an invisible friend–and water would splash back.
She marveled at that friendship as duende were usually creatures to be avoided. In stories even those they befriended usually found themselves in serious trouble. I’ve always loved that connection, and when I went back to the Phils to discover that the creek was gone and the area cemented over and covered in homes I felt a real sadness and I truly hoped that my mythological friends were ok.
To this day when I walk through forests, or come to a creek I would bow my head and greet the spirits. And to this day I’ve always felt safe in wild areas—I’ve had quite a few close calls, but I’ve always come out ok.
Now I’m not saying I believe these stories to be literal truth, but there is wonderful metaphorical truth to be found in mythology—it’s the truth that cannot be spoken of in literal terms, the truth that is within all religions, the truth that’s corrupted by those that see only words but can’t grasp their meaning.
One Filipino wrote on an online criticism of the Araw ng mga Patay holiday “I will never understand the Filipino fascination with the dead, much less their superstitious beliefs concerning the dead among us. I prefer to deal with the land of the living. After all, it’s the living people that need our help as we can do nothing for the dead.”
I disagree, many of our problems in the Phils and as Filipinos (especially those of us raised outside the homeland) comes from this disconnect between the present and the past, tradition and modernity. In our headlong rush to become equal to the West [whatever that may mean], we are quickly discarding our mythologies instead of allowing them to evolve. This stupidity is an attempt to strip us of our relationship to the land, each other, and the past.
But these stories live in us whether we want them to or not because our parents, our grandparents, and our families have lived with these stories and they have influenced how they act and how they have raised us.
Tradition is not a static creature. It lives and evolves within the people they inhabit. We cannot remove ourselves from it any more than we can try to remove our blood from our bodies. We can definitely try, and I know too many that do, but the sad result helps neither the living nor the dead.
(all images: ©2005-07 alex felipe / All Rights Reserved)
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Jennoschmello wrote:
Wow. This is just wow. I’m really happy you did an expose on Philippine culture. Not too many mainstream Americans (and I know you’re Canadian) know about the Philippine culture. My boyfriend is Caucasian who has lived with and been around Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Americans. Soon as he started dating me, I had to teach him about my Filipino customs, as he wasn’t familiar with them and I could see it creating a wedge between my mother and him.
You see, my mother adores him, but after cooking for him week after week, you would understand why she would want him to reciprocate a little (Utang na Loob or ‘debt of gratitude’) . I had a talk with him about this and he responded ten-fold. In other words, he’s been sharing whatever he cooks with my mom, doing things for her, and she’s taking it all in. I swear whenever he brings her some guacamole or a potato casserole, she’s just blushing to the ears! Of course my boyfriend is doing this voluntarily and because he likes our family (and of course loves me!), but this is just another example of welding/mixing two distinct cultures and turning them into a tradition.
Awesome article. I’m so glad you wrote this!
Jennifer
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 8:52 am ¶
atlasien wrote:
Thanks for you sharing your family history! I learned a lot from this piece.
The Araw ng mga Patay presents a fascinating parallel to the Mexican Day of the Dead.
I think animist traditions have gone forward into the modern age in some very complicated and subtle ways.
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 9:39 am ¶
Lisa wrote:
This is terrific, thank you for writing this eye-opening piece about Filipino culture and spirituality.
Perhaps I’m stating something very general for Racialicious readers, but I’m a bit apprehensive about some aspects of expose pieces exploring religion, culture, and race.
Perhaps it’s because the Filipino diaspora is so vast and Filipinos, because of the global exporting of Filipino workers, can be found anywhere in the world and their religion and culture is affected by that migration and immigration, I am wondering/apprehensive about how pieces about religion and culture that may inadvertently cluster unclusterable people and their beliefs.
As a Filipina-American, I am always open to learning more about my ancestry, such as articles as this one here. My parents raised us on trick-or-treat nights and celebrating Halloween. And while I’m very excited to read this well-written article, I would caution that not all “Filipinos do not celebrate Halloween,” as our culture is hardly monolithic and is vulnerable to blanket statements that use the words “all” and “us.” Most certainly I do not want to nitpick semantics or take anything away from this truly great piece, I just wanted to share my thoughts about the impact of exploring such a wide landscape.
Mabuhay, Alex.
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 9:46 am ¶
Aishtamid wrote:
Thank you for this article Alex.
This is something I knew nothing about and now I’m fascinated. It does seem a lot like the Mexican Day of the Dead. Does this come from the shared Spanish influence in Mexico and the Philippines or is it just two individual cultural coincidences?
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 10:04 am ¶
Matt wrote:
Well said.
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 11:29 am ¶
AJ Plaid wrote:
Now I’m not saying I believe these stories to be literal truth, but there is wonderful metaphorical truth to be found in mythology—it’s the truth that cannot be spoken of in literal terms, the truth that is within all religions, the truth that’s corrupted by those that see only words but can’t grasp their meaning.
This. Thank you for saying this and the amazing photographs accompanying this post.
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 11:46 am ¶
alexfelipe wrote:
First off thanks to Racialicious for reprinting this, and thank you all for taking the time to read it.
Jennoschmello: Love the little story about your boyfriend and mother. Taking the time to understand a little about a culture almost always results in beautiful moments like this.
atlasien: Thanks! I’ve always admired your posts and so your comments mean alot.
Lisa: Yes you are correct, we are a very diverse culture and your slight addendum is appreciated. While you are correct that Halloween is to some level ‘celebrated’ it remains a very new import and very selectively so. The walking door to door for candy doesn’t happen in most places. I know that in recent years I’ve noticed the malls decorated more and more in the ‘halloween spirit’ I never really felt it permeate in the general culture like the adopted Spanish holiday does. It seems to me more an elite thing, where the rich throw dress up parties and where kids in gated communities do a limited amount of trick or treating.
And of course the animistic bits are representative of my own specific people, the Tagalogs, and may or may not be (probably the latter) not representative of all.
Aishtamid: Yes this is an adopted holiday taken from the Spanish, so that explains the connection with Mexico. But of course the reason why is so widely accepted is because it fits in perfectly with traditional ideas about the connection between generations, the respect for ancestors, and the deep belief in the reality of the spirit world. Halloween, though brought in by Americans, is more of a secular holiday and thus without traditional parallels not as popular.
AJ Plaid & Matt: Thanks! Please feel free to visit my site for more pics (I consider myself a photographer first).
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 1:13 pm ¶
Joy wrote:
Very interesting article and *beautiful* photographs.
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 1:38 pm ¶
alexfelipe wrote:
A SERIOUS oversight: I am of course talking foremost about Tagalog and Christian culture in the Philippines. I apologise to my Muslim brothers and sisters for not making that point clear.
I am VERY sorry about this.
Muslims, or ‘Moros,’ as they became known under the Spanish make up 10% of our archipelago and their culture is a very important and distinct part of the islands known as the Philippines.
A bit of Muslim history:
The Spanish had just finished fighting Moros (Moors) in Spain when they arrived on our islands–to find it inhabited by more Moros! This did not make them very happy.
The Muslim culture was dominant across much of Malay SEAsia (from the Phils to Malaysia and beyond). There was a strong political and economic link between all these lands. Manila itself (known then as Maynilad), was a Muslim city of 10,000 people at that time.
If you’ve been to the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros (Manila), you’ve been to the site of Rajah Sulaiman’s home. That’s right, the Spanish built their city around a church build on top of the site of Muslim political power in the region.
This cathedral has since been destroyed by natural (and human) disasters at least seven times. It’s almost as if Sulaiman has something to say about how things turned out….
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 1:43 pm ¶
Ejunco wrote:
As a Filipino I can relate to a lot of those myths you mention my grandma always talks to me about them, even my mom and dad once in a while would mention about it when they were growing up. Did you know that before the anting-anting, it was actually tattoos that would protect us from harm in the Filipino myths, this was before Spanish colonization.
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 2:16 pm ¶
alexfelipe wrote:
Ejunco: I believe physical anting-antings were already a part of the culture before the Spanish (but if you have sources to prove me wrong I’d love to see them), but tattoos were definitely also served similar uses.
It’s a sad thing that our traditional tattoo culture is dying these days…
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 2:27 pm ¶
eccentricyoruba eccent wrote:
this is wonderful and insightful. i like that traditional Filipino traditions have still been kept almost intact though obviously they have evolved. it is great that some beliefs have been maintained.
“In our headlong rush to become equal to the West [whatever that may mean], we are quickly discarding our mythologies instead of allowing them to evolve. This stupidity is an attempt to strip us of our relationship to the land, each other, and the past.”
this is so true. it saddens me that in Nigeria where i am from, traditional religions have been branded ‘demonic’ and ‘pagan’. we do not have anything similar to Araw ng mga Patay. while people do mix Christianity or Islam with animist beliefs, it is not mainstream at all.
all in all, a very informative post. i really enjoyed it.
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 2:52 pm ¶
ashlynn wrote:
What a wonderful post. Thank you for sharing.
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 3:42 pm ¶
Alta wrote:
I really loved this post. I’m from Haiti, and two of the big religions there are Christianity (specifically Catholicism) and Voodooism. Your point about tradition evolving really resonated with me. Usually, Voodooism is seen as an evil religion filled with evil spirits by Haitian Christians, but the thing is that we do believe in these spirits. My family and I are Baptists, but my mom (and most Haitian Christians) still believes that these spirits, and magic, and curses, and people turning into animals really do exist. I believe in them, but more in a passive way. I mean I certainly wouldn’t want to run into a Ougan (Voodoo priest).
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 5:57 pm ¶
Juniper d wrote:
This was a wonderful post, Alex. Thanks! My Filipino grandfathers are both dead, so my connection to my Filipino heritage is tenuous. I’m always fascinated to read more about the culture they came from. (Though they were both Ilocano, not Tagalog.)
I was a little saddened by your “Don’t hold it against me!” parenthetical about your Spanish great-grandfather, however. It reinforces the perception that mixed-race people have something to apologize for. I’m half Spanish (by way of Ecuador and Puerto Rico), and the “she’s not brown enough” attitude I’ve experienced from Filipinos can be hurtful.
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 5:59 pm ¶
alexfelipe wrote:
Juniper: Thanks for the comment. I agree that mixed race people have nothing to apologise for, so I want to elaborate.
When I say that, it’s not a comment on mixed race people in general, and especially not towards mixed race people here in N. America. It’s a comment on our sad past.
For many Filipinos, the whole being part spanish thing is a source of great pride, to the extent that many don’t even identify as Filipino but as Spanish (0r some other group). To be ‘mestizo/mestiza’ has such cultural cache that it just radiates the colonial mentality I regret about our people.
Perhaps I’m being too honest in saying that in the post but having Spanish blood has the reverse emotional impact for me. Our colonial past (and neo-colonial present) is a point of anger, one that is a major source for my activism around Philippine issues…
Much love kapatid,
af
Posted 30 Jul 2009 at 10:20 pm ¶
Ed wrote:
The second pic is really interesting – I’m assuming that these are betel nut quids being prepared before a ritual. This is paralleled by an essential component of many Balinese offerings (canang) called “porosan” or “lekesan”, which are little packets containing the primary ingredients for betel quids – in short, they contain the colors representing the Hindu trinity and thus the trinity itself. These are betel leaf, symbolizing Vishnu (green); slaked lime, symbolizing Shiva (white); and areca nut, symbolizing Brahma (red).
One can argue that this is really animist practice, but knowing that Hinduism was known in some areas of the Philippines (even if it did not hold as much sway as it had in other regions in Insular SE Asia), it wouldn’t be surprising at all if Hinduism had some significant role in establishing the use of an article like a betel quid in ritual.
Posted 31 Jul 2009 at 3:16 am ¶
Persia wrote:
This is really interesting, and the comments too. Thank you.
Posted 31 Jul 2009 at 9:30 am ¶
Allison wrote:
Thanks so much, alixfelipe, for so many layers of meaning, and especially for offering your story.
I am a white female Unitarian Universalist minister, and our pluralistic, non-dogmatic faith seeks wisdom from all religious traditions. But, in our work to be anti-racist & anti-oppressive, we have to be sensitive about cultural misappropriation. When I hear about Araw ng mga Patay, I want to be there in that circle in the cemetery or try to recreate it with my congregation. But I can’t.
As a white person I have to deconstruct my whiteness and find the old ways of my ancestors. Many sides of my family have been in places of power and privilege for generations, which I believe is damaging to the soul. Because of class and race issues in the US my family forsook its old traditional ways in exchange for power and privilege, in exchange for their soul. So I yearn for the old ways myself. But how to find them?
Thanks for your inspiring offering!
Posted 31 Jul 2009 at 1:06 pm ¶
Roy wrote:
Great story, it’s crazy that this article was posted, bc a few days ago I just got done talking to my lola (grandmother) about the celebration and how she has lit various candles around the house in honor of the family members that have passed away.
I remember growing up in Cagayan de Oro – our family worked in farms and anytime it was time for harvest whether it’s corn, sugar cane or misc produce. My lola would always tell my brother and I to say, “Peura gaba” to thank the spirits for the harvest before entering the house or else bad luck would come upon our family and the farm. Till this day – I use that phrase in fear of the bad spirits that may come upon me and my family.
Maraming salamat!
Posted 31 Jul 2009 at 4:29 pm ¶
alexfelipe wrote:
Roy: I don’t know that saying. Can you translate? I assume it’s like “tabi tabi po” when tagalogs walk into wooded areas? (meaning literally ‘excuse me please’)
Posted 31 Jul 2009 at 10:47 pm ¶
Jha wrote:
What a beautiful post! It very much resembles the animism in Malaysia, too, so when you were talking about river spirits, I was absolutely enthralled to know such beliefs are shared across seas.
Two quotes of yours stood out:
“In our headlong rush to become equal to the West [whatever that may mean], we are quickly discarding our mythologies instead of allowing them to evolve.”
“Tradition is not a static creature. It lives and evolves within the people they inhabit. We cannot remove ourselves from it any more than we can try to remove our blood from our bodies. We can definitely try, and I know too many that do, but the sad result helps neither the living nor the dead.”
While in Malaysia the nuances are possibly different, I totally understood these sentiments.
Thank you so much for this post!
Posted 01 Aug 2009 at 5:12 pm ¶
alexfelipe wrote:
Jha, I’m surprised by your surprise. Most Filipinos are of Malay descent (referring to the ethnological group, not the the people of the country—as actually Malaysians arrived in what is now Malaysia from what is now the Philippines). Therefore our languages and beliefs all share the same base.
Posted 03 Aug 2009 at 6:13 pm ¶
alexfelipe wrote:
oh and thanks Jha for the comments, I’m glad you enjoyed the post
Posted 03 Aug 2009 at 6:14 pm ¶
Paolo Chikiamco wrote:
Hi Alex,
Neat post, and right up my alley–hope you don’t mind if I tweet/link to this? I’m a Filipino author and I cover the local Speculative Fiction scene. If you’re interested in local folklore there are several decent books on the subject, and there’s been a steady increase in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror short stories and komiks (local comics) which draw upon that folklore.
If you like comics and local mythology, I recommend you pick up “The Mythology Class” by Arnold Arre and the two Trese compilations by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo if you haven’t already.
One caveat though: in Metro Manila (and I assume the other large cities) Halloween is actually celebrated, although it’s the sanitized, commercialized version meant to provide costume makers and dentists with a revenue stream. ^_^
Posted 04 Aug 2009 at 10:29 am ¶
Roy wrote:
Alex: Sorry for the delayed response…in regards to the phrase “Peura gaba” -it revolves around the whole idea of Karma : performing positive actions results in a good condition in one’s experience..and so forth.
And you would state this phrase more than once -almost into a prayer or chant while acting out something that the spirits may smile or frown upon in hopes that if you did a positive deed it will benefit you somewhere in the road OR if a something bad was done, state the phrase in hopes that the actions will not come back and haunt you and your family.
I hope I was able to clarify that for you.
Posted 04 Aug 2009 at 11:41 am ¶
alexfelipe wrote:
Hi Paulo, thanks for those book titles I”ll look em up as I do love that sort of stuff.
As for Halloween being celebrated in Manila, I do agree that it’s facade is in the malls, and the rich might play dress up at parties (and maybe their kids might do something in their gated communities), but I have yet to see the masses celebrate this in any fashion recognisable as ‘Halloween’ to a Westerner. Am I wrong?
Posted 04 Aug 2009 at 4:06 pm ¶
Jha wrote:
alexfelipe @ 23: Oh, I was surprised because it’s something I grew up with in Malaysian-Chinese culture (although, now am even more surprised at the commonalities between our two countries! We are taught slightly differently in Malaysia on the origins of the Malay race). Still, it’s a wonderful reflection on how spiritual beliefs get transferred from place to place and still hold relevance.
Posted 04 Aug 2009 at 7:36 pm ¶