Cultural Beliefs in Housing

Cultural Beliefs in Housing – Regional Characteristics

• Culture includes experiences, expressions, symbols, materials, customs, behaviors, morals, values, attitudes, and beliefs created and communicated among individuals, and passed down as cultural traditions.
• Superstitions influence Filipinos decisions when building their homes.

Selecting the Lot

• Secure lots that show prospects of fortune and avoid those with signs of bad luck.
• Square or rectangular lots bring balance and harmony.
• Purse-shaped or trapezoidal lots attract wealth and fortune.
• Avoid triangular lots because their sharp corners invite accidents and conflict.
• A lot with black ants is considered good luck.
• Houses or lots sold for very low prices may have witnessed harrowing events.
• Finding a snake on the lot means good luck in business or work, but eliminate it quickly.
• New houses should not be built over the ruins of old ones.
• Cracked house posts bring bad luck.
• Ilocanos cut down aratilis/mansanitas trees to prevent daughters from getting pregnant out of wedlock.
• Kapampangans avoid dead-end lots to prevent financial misfortune or death.

Laying the Foundation and Posts

• Laying the pillar is a momentous event, inviting luck and blessings.
• "Padugo" (animal blood-spilling) must be done at the start of construction.
• Pregnant women should not visit construction sites during excavation.
• Pour cement on a full moon for luck and faster construction.
• Bury old books to ensure intelligent children or music sheets for family harmony.
• Embed coins or religious medallions inside posts for good luck.
• Smearing pig or chicken blood prevents bad spirits from causing havoc.
• Some believe sili or chili pepper with salt repels bad spirits, and expensive wine pleases entities within.
• Turning posts clockwise makes the house resilient to typhoons.
• Sprinkle rock salt in footing excavations to prevent termite infestation.
• Avoid cutting old posts for reuse to avoid losing wealth.
• Offer a big or a chicken's blood during construction by pouring it on the foundations or posts,
• Erecting a house in front of a dead-end street brings bad luck.
• Having the shadow of a post fall on you while erecting is a bad omen.
• In Bayambang, Pangasinan, charring the bottoms of wooden posts prevents termites.
• In Cagayan Valley, raise the post nearest to the northeast first, after sprinkling the footings with wine.
• Bataan old folks caution against a solitary post in the middle of a room.
• In Southern Tagalog, posts are laid with bottom ends at the footing on the ground and top ends pointing east, raising the east-nearest post first.
• The Tausugs equate building a house to fetus development so the first post should be the main post.
• Yakans do not use posts with knotholes because they symbolize death.

Orienting House Elements

• Having two faces of the house take in the morning sun is advantageous like having a corner of the house face east.
• A house should have many windows to absorb natural and spiritual graces.
• The house front should face east for sunshine and prosperity.
• Facing west brings financial difficulties, avoid mirrors facing the main door, and the roof ridge should not face east or west. The roof should not be higher than neighbors.

Designing the Stairs

• The number of steps should not be a multiple of three ("oro, plata, mata"), with the last step being oro (gold).
• Stairs should turn to the right (moral path).
• The stairway should not be positioned at the center of a multi-story structure.
• Insert the dried umbilical cord to bind the stringer with its supporting girder.
• Avoid a large window directly facing the stairs.
• Do not create a passageway under the stairs.
• Ilocanos position stairs to rise with the morning sun or face a nearby mountain.
• In Romblon, the roof must slope to follow mountain's direction
• Bonto houses should face the flow of a nearby river, according to ancient folklore
• In the Cordilleras, the roof ridge is positioned at right angles to the mountain.
• Ibalois elevate floors accommodate for the future tomb to ensure guidance of the dead.
• Stairs on a river-abutting lot facing upstream to keep luck from washing away. If near the sea plan the stairs to run parallel with the shore.
• Builders in Pandi, Bulacan believe a stairway facing east is bad luck.
• Tagalogs never use the space beneath as a sleeping quarter.
• The underside of Ilongo stairs are completely covered not because of peeping Toms but because the old folks say so.
• Yakans of Mindanao believe in odd steps and bedrooms.

Doors

• Internal doors should not face parallel to outside doors to prevent luck from flowing out.
• The main gate should not be opposite the main entrance.
• Doors should never face west.
• Mirrors should never face a house's main door.
• Imprint an old coin to encourage cash flow.
• Do not sweep the floor in the evening going to the main door.
• Doors should not face each other; in Bulacan, wide doors facing each other are considered lucky.

Living Room

• Sunken rooms or basements are seen as hiding spots for evil spirits.
• Avoid overly ornate ceilings as it appears like a coffin like "mansard" roofs.
• Ilocanos do not want basements because only coffins should under the ground.
• Floors of the living and dining rooms must be of the same level.

Beds and Bedrooms

• Bedroom doors should not face the foot or head of the bed.
• Ensure space between the door and bed, with the headboard not resting against a window.
• Do not put a bed under a cross beam.
• Do not expose beams.
• Ensure no drainage pipes run inside or under the floor where the bed is located as they contain unclean fluids.
• Bedrooms are not to be located in the basement.

Dining Rooms

• Pampangos dining rooms are in the sunniest and brightest location.
• Ilocanos prefer subdued lighting due to eating a solemn occasion.

End of Construction and Moving in

• After padugo is tree-topping, "tree-placing" at the top.
• The owner must transfer by six in the morning during a new moon and bring salt, rice, and coins.
• Do not move-in on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, during undas, and the year's close or during Ghost Month.

Other Cultural Beliefs

• Palm fronds are popular in Filipino houses, especially Roman Catholic families.
• Avoid having your house in the shape of a cross
• Place a child's first extracted tooth is placed under the roof to bring luck.
• A house in the middle of a crossroad and faces the dead end is full of bad luck.
• Septic tanks must not be constructed higher than the ground.
• No part of the house should cover of hang over the stump of a newly cut tree.
• A two-story building remodeled into a single story will shorten lives of occupants.
• A snake entering if does not bite brings good luck .
• Numbers 7, and 11 bring good luck while the number 13 is not used.
• A construction injury while erecting a house, an omen of bad luck, can be neutralized by killing a pig or white chicken and sacrificing its blood.
• A Balete tree should not be cut down.