Tag Archives: filipino folklore

Ghosts and staircases

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Geotechnical engineer
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/30/21
Primary Language: English

Background: I asked about the informant’s background with Pacific Islanders and how they heard about it to which they responded, “I work with a lot of Filipino coworkers, I have friends who are various nationalities, I know some Indoneseians, I know some Fijians, Samoans, Hawaiians. And they all have similar, like, the one consistent thing is that the stairs cannot be in line with a door leading to the outside.”

KD: The Pacific Islanders have a superstition, that in a multi story home, the stairwell cannot be in-line with any door leading to the outside because that can allow ghosts to enter and go up to another floor so I know a lot of Pacific Islanders when they look at houses, one of the things that they check for is, okay, does my front door line up with the stairwell, does my back door line up with the stairwell? And if it does line up with the stairwell, is it a continuous set of stairs that goes all the way to the top, or is there a landing and a switchback, to which, ghosts cannot make that turn or the switchback to get up the stairs. It, it has to be one continuous route, so, in my mind that doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense, like okay well if a ghost can enter the house and they can go up the stairs, once they’re up the stairs, they’re free to move about, they can turn left, righ, turn around, they can go into any room, but, why can they not make that turn on a switchback and ascend another flight of stairs. So, the logic and the rationale of like, okay you don’t want your stairs to be in line where the ghost can move straight, can take a straight path up, it’s like okay that, some aspects of it don’t make sense to me, but I can understand the other parts of it’s like okay once it’s up the stars, it’s free to move about because it’s reached its path, it can do its haunting, it can do its uh–sometimes ghosts are good, sometimes ghosts are ebad, I know that as you move between the various island nations, in some cultures ghosts aree past residents, so if you destroy and build a new home and you’re the original owner, it’s safe for the stairs to be in line with the door, but if you move into, that house is now haunted or it’s, I don’t understand like when it’s haunting versus when it’s like okay these are my grandma and my grandpa and they’re visiting us and they’re blessing our children. I don’t understand the background of the ghost, but the superstition of, okay, ghosts can go front he outside straight into a house and up stairs that are in line, that kinda makes sense to me, like I understand it’s like yeah they do that, but why are they allowed to roam freely in the upstairs portion but not in the downstairs portion. Its, there are inconsistencies but that comes from a place of not being a part of that culture.

Context of the performance: This was told to me during an in person conversation.

Thoughts: This is coming from an etic perspective, so unfortunately I don’t have insight into the emic at all. This was shared with the informant from people he is very close to, but he is reiterating and sharing his beliefs based on looking into another culture’s beliefs. It seems to be preserved by the culture though as a way of maintaining identity.

For another example of ghosts and haunting as related to houses, see Valk, Ülo. “Ghostly Possession and Real Estate: The Dead in Contemporary Estonian Folklore.” Journal of Folklore Research, vol. 43, no. 1, 2006, pp. 31–51. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3814859. Accessed 28 Feb. 2021.

Biting your tongue

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Geotechnical engineer
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/30/21
Primary Language: English

Background: This is a belief the informant has been told by multiple friends and coworkers who are Filipino.

Biting your tongue

KD: So, in the event you bite your tongue, you ask whoever you’re with to give you a letter of the alphabet. So if I bite my tongue and I say okay give me a letter, you say S–somebody that I know whose name starts with S is currently talking about me, could be good, could be bad.

Me: Who did you hear about that from?

KD: It’s a Filipino thing, heard about it from my coworker. Uh, he was explaining various Filipino customs and superstitions.

Me: And do you think about that every time you bite your tongue?

KD: Yeah, it’s something where it’s like that’s just, that’s weird, but like, also like, it makes sense.

Me: And why does it make sense?

KD: Cause, you bit your tongue and it’s bad to bite your tongue and people are talking bad about you.

Context of the performance: This was told to me in an in person conversation.

Thoughts: Although the informant is not Filipino and shares this information from an etic perspective, he believes it and thinks about it every time he bites his tongue. There may be more meaning from an emic perspective, since they would actually be a part of the culture this belief is in. There seems to be a connection between it being the tongue and the belief about the corresponding speech. As a form of synecdoche, the tongue represents speech, and the physical pain of the bit could symbolize a biting remark or pain of talking bad about somebody behind their back. This, however, only makes sense if someone’s speaking ill of you and the pain doesn’t mean anything, but the bite is more of an alert of speech.

Hiwit

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 45
Occupation: Government Employee
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: March 2021
Primary Language: Tagalog
Language: Ilonggo, English

Context:
The interlocutor (JP) is the mother of the interviewer (INT). She and her family grew up in Bacolod, Philippines, and lived there up until she moved in her 20s. Since then, she’s lived in Los Angeles.

Description: (told in person)
(JP): “Apparently ginger was a thing to ward off the spirits, especially for babies. So my family actually got something tailored to fit my body because that would be something that would make me be quiet because babies cry! So, they attract the attention of the spirits, so they would put a…I don’t know, a hex, or what we call hiwit in our language.

And then, it takes, like a, how do you call, like a, like some kind of shaman that has to take the baby or whoever is sick so that they can do whatever… spells? To ward off the spirits.”

(INT): “Because of the noise?”

(JP): “No. Because you-it catches the spirit’s attention! So like when you’re screaming and crying and you’re in the mountainous area or the farmlands, everyone’s gonna be like ‘be quiet!’ because you’re gonna catch their attention. And usually what happens is when someone says that, the person will either have a fever. start throwing up… that’s what they say. Becaus you caught the attention of the bad spirits.”

Interlocutor’s Opinion:
(JP): “I guess it’s true? I haven’t been subject to it, but your uncle has, when he was a kid. He had a fever, and stomach issues… he got really sick and we had to take him to the shaman and then he got better.”

Final Thoughts:
We had discussed how there was a whole genre of stories that were created for the purpose of scaring kids into behaving well. I think Hiwit is unique because it is centered around the idea of scaring kids into good behavior, but also shows that anyone around the hiwit-attractor can be affected. I think it’s interesting how stories such as this one are used to explain unexpected phenomena such as sudden illness, and how deep superstition and folk belief run in communities to try and define the uncertain.

Manananggal

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 45
Occupation: Government Employee
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: March 2021
Primary Language: Tagalog
Language: English, Ilonggo

CONTEXT/BACKGROUND:
The interlocutor (JP) is the mother of the interviewer (INT). She and her family grew up in Bacolod, Philippines, and lived there up until she moved to Los Angeles in her twenties.

DESCRIPTION: (told in person)
(JP): “The manananggal is this mythical creature that separates from their lower body. She usually has fangs and wings, like um… a vampire witch, and she likes to hunt for her victims at night.

Most of her victims are pregnant people since she can such the blood or heart out of the fetuses, or, um…. or even the mother, but she also will attack newlyweds and abandoned grooms. A lot of people who fear the manananggal will put out salt, holy water, or garlic to keep her away from their home. She also doesn’t like the sun, I think.

Some people say that since the manananggal leaves her severed legs just standing in the middle of the forest… if you see the legs, you should sprinkle salt or ashes or even put garlic where the body is supposed to meet. And they say that…if you do that, you will kill her.”

FINAL THOUGHTS/OBSERVATIONS:
There’s a lot of similarities between the manananggal and other monsters and legendary figures we’ve studied, such as the Balkan vampire. While there may not be a distinct cultural connection, it’s definitely interesting how different cultures can come up with similar mythical creatures that are meant to scare people. It definitely reflects the cultural fears people have. In this case, based on the fact that the manananggal is represented as a woman with the ability to suck blood or eat fetus hearts, I believe the manananggal could possibly reflect a fear of miscarriages or other issues regarding childbirth, as well as divorce or young relationships being ruined.

The Man With the Coconuts

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: California
Performance Date: 04/26/2021
Primary Language: English

Context

The following story comes from my friend who enjoys telling me about various Philipino folktales that she heard from her parents when she was younger.

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Performance

The following is a transcription of the story told to me.

“So there’s this man with a bunch of coconuts and he’s loading them all up on his horse, and it’s really heavy. On the way back home, he gets really tired and he finds a boy on the side of the street. He calls the boy over and asks him how long more it will take to reach the town. The boy tells him that the town is fairly near! The boy also tells him that the man will arrive very soon but if he goes fast, it will take him all day. So he tells the man to just go slowly. The man is confused and thinks the boy is just being dumb and naive. So he rides his horse fast to the town. However, along the way the coconuts keeps falling off the horse and the man has to stop and continuously pick up the coconuts. Then he would try and ride even faster on his horse, to make up for lost time, but then the coconuts would keep dropping and he would have to stop and pick them up. And eventually the man made it back to town at the end the day.”

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Analysis

This Filipino folktale is one that is meant to share a message and a lesson. The lesson is to never rush something because you will not do the task properly and you will end up needing even more time than if you had just been patient and worked diligently. This folktale is one that is commonly told as a bedtime story to younger children. It is meant to impart the lesson of patience and hard work. Many other Filipino folklore also have a strong message behind the story. To read more Filipino folklore: https://www.jstor.org/stable/537202

Ratcliff, Lucetta K. “Filipino Folklore.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 62, no. 245, 1949, pp. 259–289. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/537202. Accessed 30 Apr. 2021.