Tag Archives: Filipino customs

Pagpag

Nationality: American
Age: 57
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Chino, California
Language: Tagalog/English

Title: Pagpag: When coming from a wake, a Filipino practice would be not to go home straight away as it is believed that the soul of the dead would follow one back to their house. One may stop anywhere one pleases as long as one does not go straight home.

Context: “It’s a really common belief in the Philippines. Basically, after attending a wake or a funeral, you’re not supposed to go straight home. You have to stop somewhere else first, like a restaurant, a friend’s house, or even just a store before heading back. The reason behind it is that if you go directly home, the spirit of the deceased might follow you, bringing bad luck or misfortune to your household.

I first learned about pagpag from my family when I was a kid. Anytime we attended a wake, my parents would always say, “We have to stop somewhere first, or the spirit will follow us home.” It was just something we always did, even if it was just stopping at a convenience store for a few minutes. I remember once asking my mom if skipping pagpag would actually cause something bad to happen, and she just said, “Better to be safe than sorry.” That really stuck with me because even though she wasn’t superstitious, she still followed the practice out of habit and respect for tradition.

Now that I’m older, I don’t fully believe in the supernatural aspect of it, but I still do pagpag whenever I attend a wake. It’s just ingrained in me at this point. Plus, I’ve noticed that even people who don’t believe in ghosts or spirits still follow it, mostly out of respect for elders or to avoid any potential bad luck. It’s one of those folk beliefs that continues to be passed down, even if people aren’t sure whether it’s real or not.”

Analysis: Pagpag is a prime example of folk belief in the Philippines, reflecting deep-seated cultural values about death, the afterlife, and spiritual protection. At its core, this practice serves as a ritual of separation, ensuring that mourners do not bring lingering spirits into their homes. This aligns with broader funerary folklore, where many cultures have traditions meant to protect the living from the influence of the dead. The belief that a spirit may follow someone home reveals an underlying fear of unresolved energy, a common theme in folklore that deals with death and the supernatural.

From a folkloric perspective, pagpag also functions as a preventative ritual, reinforcing the idea that small actions can influence fate. Even though many modern Filipinos may not fully believe in the superstition, they still follow it out of cultural habit or respect for elders, which shows how folklore persists even as belief systems evolve. Additionally, pagpag reflects the communal nature of Filipino traditions, where shared practices around death strengthen social bonds and provide comfort during mourning. Ultimately, it demonstrates how folk beliefs help people navigate uncertainty, providing a sense of control in the face of death, one of life’s greatest unknowns.

Filipino Funeral Etiquette

Nationality: Filipino-American
Age: 24
Occupation: Electrical Engineer
Residence: Long Beach
Performance Date: April 28 2020
Primary Language: English

Informant: Another story is something that happened to my dad when he was at a funeral. I guess the folklore part is that, uh, when you’re at a funeral, you shouldn’t be, ah, like, overly, I guess, happy-looking? Because it’s disrespectful to the dead, um, and, well, the way it goes is if you do that, then the dead person at the funeral will haunt you.

Um, so when my dad was at this funeral, I think it was a funeral– I don’t know if he knew the person, but he was with, ah, his own family members, and they were goofing around, i think they were like gambling in the back, while the funeral was going on. So, ah, that was happening, and then, all of a sudden, the, ah, corpse stood up– or not stood up, sat up in the coffin, and then it stared at my dad and his group, and I can’t remember if he said it screamed or not, but essentially it, after staring at them, it fell back down.

Collector: Do you know why it happened??

Informant: Well, because, ah, they were gambling at this person’s funeral! Because it was possessed by the ghost of the dead person, presumably. 

The worst part of it was that, uh, yeah, basically like a bit of a curse placed on them,, ah, I can’t remember what my dad said for the other people who were there, but he said for like a month, whenever he would, ah, close his eyes and try to sleep, he would get like flashes of the face of the dead person, just like staring at them. 

Context: My informant is a close friend of mine, and is a Filipino American young man. His father is an immigrant from the Philippines, and has extended family still living there.

Analysis: I wish I had had the chance to interview my informant’s father about this experience, as he apparently had personally witnessed it. It is interesting that when I asked my informant why this happened, he answered as if it was obvious– because his father had disrespected the deceased. This piece of folklore seems to act as a warning to never disrespect the dead at their own funeral.

Sweeping Good Luck Away– Filipino custom

Nationality: Filipino American
Age: 57
Occupation: Healthcare Receptionist
Residence: Long Beach
Performance Date: April 27 2020
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog

Piece:

Informant: If, ah– let’s say you’re sweeping at night, and you have your, y’know.. So if you sweep at night, don’t sweep the dirt, the– y’know, the dirt out on the door. It’s, ah, bad, bad luck.

Collector: If you sweep it out the door?

Informant: Out the door. So it has to be–you can sweep, but y’know– the door is closed, and you just sweep and get all the, y’know, 

Collector: Get all the dust out?

Informant: But not to sweep–yeah.

Collector: So you’re supposed to sweep it into a pan and then take it outside?

Informant:Yeah, oh no, well, you just sweep–just not the door.

Collector: Do you know why?

Informant: Yeah, y’know, it’s same thing, it’s– no good [laughs].

Context: The informant is the mother of a close friend of mine, and is an immigrant from the Philippines, specifically Cavite City, which is about an hour away from Manila. She has lived in Southern California for roughly 40 years, while still maintaining close connections with her home country. 

Analysis: By sweeping the dust out of the door, one might inadvertently sweep the good luck out of the house. When asked, she reported that she had heard about the custom from other housewives in the Philippines. I have heard similar sayings in Jewish culture, though I cannot recall anything specific. As I did with my previous piece, I looked up “sweeping dirt out door” online, to better gauge who participated in this belief. This time, the results were varied; Though there were still many posts that labeled it a strictly Filipino custom (i.e. “You know you’re Filipino When..”), many seemed to consider it a general housewife belief. In this case, it seems as if this particular ritual can be seen in many different cultures.

Filipino Utensil Superstition

Nationality: Filipino American
Age: 57
Occupation: Healthcare Receptionist
Residence: Long Beach
Performance Date: April 27 2020
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog

Piece:

Informant: So what I remember is, like, y’know, like that one, if you drop a utensil, either like, a fork– if you drop a fork on the floor, then they were saying that you’re gonna have a visitor, it’s gonna be a male. And if it’s, ah, a spoon, then it’s gonna be female.

Collector: Do you know why, like, the fork and the spoon have genders?

Informant: Yeah, it’s kinda like, the fork kinda like, represents the male, y’know, and then– if it’s like the little spoon, then the young, young, yeah, young girl. And then if it’s the little fork, it’s like young boy. Y’know, something like that, so it doesn’t have an age or anything.

Collector: Right, right, where did you pick this up, just like–?

Informant: Yeah, I heard it from the people, y’know, like, my relatives, and folks in the Philippines, y’know–

Collector: Where in the Philippines are you from?

Informant: Um, I’m from Cavite City. Yeah, it’s like an hour away from Manila.

Context: The informant is the mother of a close friend of mine, and is an immigrant from the Philippines. She has lived in Southern California for roughly 40 years, while still maintaining close connections with her home country. After the interview, the informant then recalled a past incident in which she had dropped a fork minutes before her daughter’s boyfriend came for a surprise visit. 

Analysis: This particular omen, as she mentioned, she had picked up from not only her relatives, but the general folk as well, suggesting that it is a household belief. While transcribing the interview, I searched the internet for more information of who participates in this belief. One thing I noticed is that when I searched up the phrase “dropping spoon company,” the only sites I found that mentioned it were at least ten years old, the latest being posted in 2010. However, when I searched up “dropping spoon Philippines,” there were far more results, most of them posted much more recently. Nearly all of them involved lists of Filipino superstitions, which were then posted on Filipino websites. One could reasonably assume that many of these lists were written by younger people, and from there, infer that this belief is still very much alive. 

Overall, this omen, though a minor thing, seems now to be a point of pride for many Filipino people. This pride could be an enactment of “cultural intimacy,” which Michael Herzfeld describes as “the recognition of those aspects of a cultural identity that are considered as a source of external embarrassment but that nevertheless provide insiders with the assurance of common sociality”. Though perhaps not too embarrassing, this belief is certainly not a proven fact by any means, and so could be seen as superstitious or outdated. Despite this, many Filipino people seem to regard it as an identity marker, given its inclusion in many lists entitled “You know you’re Filipino when..” 

Herzfeld, M. (2005). Cultural Intimacy: Social Poetics in the Nation-State. New York: Routledge.