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## Negros Occidental: Beliefs and Practices ### People in Negros - Considered humans as *daga* for the success of an inauguration - Appeased a stronger god - Observed beliefs and customs in a peculiar way, including bringing food to the cemetery. - Practices emanate from the Negrenses' nature of b...

## Negros Occidental: Beliefs and Practices ### People in Negros - Considered humans as *daga* for the success of an inauguration - Appeased a stronger god - Observed beliefs and customs in a peculiar way, including bringing food to the cemetery. - Practices emanate from the Negrenses' nature of being respectful. - Strange Negrense practices include: - burying their dead under their houses or in their yard and digging up the skull when they move out, bringing it with them. - This was done due to the belief that the spirit of the dead still remains in the skull. - Negrense’s belief of animism is not a worship of the dead, but a belief in the persistence of the spirit. - This belief is present in the family spirit, which remains with the living members to guide them. ### Religious Beliefs and Practices - Include the usual traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. - Regular religious practices include: - Attending Lenten processions - Hearing the *Siete Palabras* (seven last words) - Doing the *Visita Iglesia*, where one must complete to visit seven Catholic churches. - Observing the Lenten season - Including *Du-aw* - Anticipated Christmas *Simbang Gabi* - Negrenses love celebrations, including baptism, weddings, and even burials. - These celebrations rekindle the celebration of family and culture distinct to every Negrense family. ### Animistic Practices - Were still in practice even today. - Examples include: - **Ulangan**: A place of worship where early Bisayans built altars to appease spirits, ancestors, and the *anitos*. - **Panabi-ta**: It is a practice of the Early Bisayans to pass through a place inhabited by spirits, where they must say *"Panabi-tabi"* as a sign of respect. - **Gaba**: A curse of the elders for those who were disrespectful or failed to take care of their parents in old age. This cursed with misfortune and sickness. - **Lumay**: A charm to soften someone's attitude towards an enemy or to make them fall in love with another. ### Anting-anting - Are amulets that gave humans powers like: unusual strength, invisibility, courage, immunity from harm, the ability to walk for days and nights without sleep or food, freedom from sickness or death. - May take many forms, including: - Unusual stones or objects - Religious objects, such as a torn bible page or medals. - The objects are often wrapped in homemade pouches and worn around the neck. - They should never leave the owner's body, even when they take a bath, otherwise their power is lost. - During the Negrense Revolution, the Negrense peoples wore the hand of small saint statues as *anting-anting* because they believed these religious items could give them mystical powers. ### Daga - A blood offering initiated by the *Babaylan* - Could be a pig with black strips or chicken with webbed feet or a peculiar color of the feathers. - This offering was sought far and wide to meet the requirements of the *Babaylan.* ### Ukoy - A large fish or shrimp that inhabited lakes and was sometimes said to be half man and half shrimp. - The most well-known story is in Linao Lake, where it is said to be a monster that takes humans into the deep. - The lake is so deep that nobody could fathom it, and folk believe it has an underground cave that exits to the Guimaras Strait. ### Babaylan - An early Bisayan Priest. - The female priests were called *Babaylanes*. - They were deeply respected in early Bisayan communities and performed rituals in specified places. - They chanted ancient rites and pleaded with the spirits dwelling in the area for good fortune or protection. - They offered an animal to inaugurate a place, which is presently called *Padugo*. - There were different types of Babaylan: - **Bangut Banwa**: The head priest who led prayers for the whole community and offered sacrifices for the people. - **Mangindalun**: Prayed for the sick and those who were afflicted with pain. - **Sulian**: Performed the marriages. ### Mantiw - A genie who inhabited the forests and fled from humans. - They were dark-skinned, hairy and huge. - They were often friendly and protective, but in most cases stayed away from humans. - They lived in the top of trees, or in large houses, especially abandoned ones. - They protected humans who were friendly to them, but would be mischievous towards disobedient children. - They smoked big tobacco rolls, bellowing their smoke up into the air. ### Tayho - A grey horse with a long neck similar to a giraffe. - It had small and large black spots on its body, and would eat leaves from trees like the giraffe. - It feared bright lights and humans, and was not known to hurt people. - In some localities, the Tayho was regarded as a European centaur, half man, half horse. ### Ablay - A belief that there once roamed Kanlaon, Marapara, Minapasok, Carapale and Bunga an animal that resembled a cow, but without discernible knees, but a lower knuckle. - Its feet swung from the upper joint, but bent midway before the upper joint and the knuckles. - The Ablay could not stand for so long so it slept by leaning or supporting itself on a tree trunk. - It had teeth like a horse, a large mouth and bulging eyes. - It was a carnivore, but it preferred eating humans than beasts. - Hunters and wood gatherers slept on tree tops to avoid being attacked and eaten by the Ablay. ### Mari-it - Spirits who lived in places where *Ulangans* (small offering shrines) were located. ### Diwata - Good spirits who would appear in human form, usually a beautiful white girl with thick brown eyebrows, long wavy eyelids and black tresses that could reach down her waist. - They would beguile men and even seduce them to take marriage in their own world. - When it was a female who was courted, the spirit was called *Tamawo*. - They would bring their intended spouse into a world of fantasy-castles, large houses, fabulous wealth, and never-ending happiness. - The intended human would be seen to go in seizures, convulsions or disorientation when these spirits took them away. ### Magkupo - It is believed that in the peak and impenetrable forest of Mt. Kanlaon there lived the Magkupo - the huge serpent with the rooster's crown and a rooster's powerful crow. - It stayed under the *Kamandag* tree near the crater of the volcano. - It had fins on its sides. - It did not crawl on the ground as other snakes did, but would move from tree to tree by winding its long body on a tree trunk, ease its head forward to reach another tree where it will coil itself. - Thus, it was called Magkupo (pronounced with a stress on the last syllable), which means to “stick on" or "embrace". - The ancients believed that humans die if they get lost underneath the shadow of Kamandag, only the serpent could live under its canopy without getting hurt. ### Bakunawa - A snake with a curled tail that devours the sun in times of eclipse. - Ancient people believed that the position of the Bakunawa influenced their daily lives. - The present day Almanaque (which are sold near churches and which many people still consult) depict the Bakunawa facing at different directions during the year. - Where the Bakunawa faces can mean good or evil in the performance of certain activities, like wedding, house-breaking, planting or journey. - When the Bakunawa swallowed the sun or the moon in an eclipse, people beat anything to make a lot of noise, or shout at the top of their voices, to force the Bakunawa to let go of the sun or the moon. - As the eclipse takes only a few minutes, the ancients, as today, believe in the effectiveness of making noise as a solution to the Bakunawa. ### Linug - Lesser god as a force of nature which means earthquake. ### Balangaw - Lesser god as a force of nature which means a rainbow. ### Kama-kama - Lesser god equivalent to a dwarf. - There are good *(puti)* and bad *(itom)* dwarves. - Their common way of making themselves known was a pinch that would cause a lump or black spots on various parts of the body. ### Creatures and Personages - Mythical creatures shroud Negrenses beliefs. - There are a variety of significant personages who were able to explain and practice spirits: - **Aswang**: Coined as the witch, or a Filipino Vampire. They inflicted pain, sickness or even death on those who would displease them. ### Aswang - A common belief among the people even today. - Ancient people believed them to be humans who were transformed into ugly beings when they craved for human flesh. - They walked during the night in search for victims. - They had ugly faces, but some could leave their bodies from the waist down while their upper portion would leave in search for prey. - To fight this type of *aswang*, a handful of salt could be placed on the cut-off portion of the body so that the upper-portion of the *aswang* could not return and thus die. - The *aswang* would not die, no matter how old they lived unless they had a successor to their powers. - They would select a member of their families or their close relatives. - *Aswang* could be male or female. - In some cases they were depicted to be beautiful women that beguiled their male victims. ### Makbarubak - God who brought thunder but spared those who would pray to him. ### Maguayem - God competing Makbarubak and also known as the god of the sea. - He brought the dead from their burial places and ferried them across to separate the dead from the living. ### Lesser Gods - Were merely a phenomena or a force of nature when greater gods were known to be supernatural beings. - Examples: - **Tamawo**: A male lesser god who is equivalent to the West’s "fairy". They lived in the *Lunok* or *Bubog* trees and would inflict sickness or bodily harm on anyone who violated the sanctity of their home unless one gave the *"Panabi-tabi"*. ### Laon - Known to be the King of the Mountain who took care of his people well. - He was prosperous, generous, kind and helpful. - To test his people, he went on a long journey. - He told his people to remain good, be generous and kind and helpful to each other, and to keep a watch over the island. - The King stayed too long, and the people who were staying in another island wandered whether he would ever come back. - Soon, they forgot what he told them, began to quarrel, cheat and lie, and developed a distrust for each other. - Families went its own way, their tobacco farms became infertile, their tobacco leaves became smaller and bitter, and yields were poorer. - People who used to come from afar to buy their tobacco, refused most of their products because of the low quality. - The people became poor, and their quarrels became more frequent and intense. - One day, they heard the King's voice. He returned to his home and was angry to learn of the sins of his people. - His subjects, however, realized what they had done and asked forgiveness and offered to make amends. - The King told them to trust one another to help each other cultivate their fields and offer him tobacco as a sign of atonement. - He told them that he would stay inside the volcano and would not come out as long as people have not completely amended their ways. - To show that he would always be there, he would smoke their tobacco and the billows would come out of the volcano once in a while to remind them of their promise to be good. ### Greater Gods - Early Bisayans had their own sets of divine beings, classified as the greater and the lesser gods. - Possessed great powers that could change nature. - Were revered by our ancestors a long time ago. - Examples: - **Kabunian**: God who was respected because he lived in the uppermost reaches of the sky, but he was not the Supreme Being. - **Naguined**: The evil one who sent bad harvests and bad weather. - **Aropayang**: God opposing Naguined. People prayed to him to bring in the rain or give them good harvest and protect their fields from harm by pests and calamities. ### Beliefs and Practices - No matter how advance and modern the way of life of each Negrense, they still believe and practice unusual norms that define their culture. - They still value the advice of a *surwano,* believe in *anting-antings* and *aswangs*, and join the activities of the Catholic Church, such as processions, Lenten masses and even the *"Visita Iglesia"*.. - Negrense beliefs and practices can be divided into two categories, the Native and the Religious. ### Native Beliefs and Practices - Originate since the time of the Bisayan ancestors. - They were considered animists. - They believed that the environment and nature were inhabited by spirits. - Saonoy's book *History of Negros Occidental,* outlines the following beliefs: - **Laun**: Ancients as the guiding spirit, which in Negros they call Laun, meaning the “old” or the "ancients". The volcano at the heart of the island of Negros is Kanlaon or Kang Laun meaning “it belongs to the old one”, the ancient one. According to the legend...