Do You Believe in Superstitious or Folk Beliefs?
Superstitious or folk beliefs are common here in the Philippines, in fact, most of the people are living it in their everyday lives. It seemed that every aspect of our lives are based on the beliefs that were passed by our elders and even in this modern world, they still do exist and are influencing out daily lives.
Some of them had been deleted off the record maybe because it has been proven that those aren't really true or that there are no living medical explanations or scientific evidences about those stuffs. As we all know, in this generation, we base things on facts and when we say facts, this needs proven and tested evidences.
Too bad there are still a lot of them that are alive and without us knowing, we are still practicing them.
When I came to the National Book Store in Mango yesterday afternoon, I came upon this book which was entitled "Don't Take a Bath on a Friday". I was intrigued by the book since it somehow relates to the post I published a couple of days ago. It was actually a collection of our most common superstitious and folk beliefs as Filipinos by Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz (I came to wonder how this guy over here is related to our college dean before).
Anyways, I'll enumerate some which I can remember and are pretty famous in our province. In case you can relate to these things written below, alas! you are a true blooded Filipino!
> Sweeping at night will sweep all the good fortunes away.
My grandma first told me about this when I was in grade school and I tried to sweep our floor one night, I was skeptical then and asked her how they are related but eventually followed so not to upset her.
> A pregnant woman who eats twin bananas will bear twins as well.
They said this will never happen if the pregnant woman will split the banana behind her. I can't believe in this one, the theory with how twins happen was explained during our biology class. *Smirk*
> A pregnant woman should step over her husband so he will bear the struggles during pregnancy.
Lol...I can't help but laugh but some of our neighbors back in Bohol had experience this, I can't imagine how. *confused*
> A woman should step on the foot of her husband on their wedding day so he will not mistreat her.
Aha! This really happens, try to observe church weddings on the provinces.
> Do not partake the food eaten by a pregnant woman. If you do, you will either become sleepy, drowsy or sick.
No comment!
> Sleeping with a wet hair will result to blindness.
My grandma always spanks me when I sleep with a wet hair before. I just ignored her because I love sleeping with a wet hair, it's refreshing and I can sleep faster.
> Brides shouldn’t try on their wedding dress before the wedding day or the wedding will not push through.
I remember my cousin telling me about this and she tried to put her wedding dress on to justify the belief, the wedding was a success though! :)
> A lingering black butterfly is a sign that one of your relatives just died.
This always happens but I can't really remember if someone from my clan died. We didn't receive any news.
> A person with a mole on his foot is a born adventurer.
Haha...James has a mole on his foot and he is not an adventurer. Hmmmpf!
> A person with big ears will have a long life.
My neighbors tell us my grandpa has big ears and that he will have a long life. He did live quiet awhile but not more than 100 years.
> If a got a fish bone on your throat, stroke a cat's paw on your throat to loosen the bone.
Some of them had been deleted off the record maybe because it has been proven that those aren't really true or that there are no living medical explanations or scientific evidences about those stuffs. As we all know, in this generation, we base things on facts and when we say facts, this needs proven and tested evidences.
Too bad there are still a lot of them that are alive and without us knowing, we are still practicing them.
When I came to the National Book Store in Mango yesterday afternoon, I came upon this book which was entitled "Don't Take a Bath on a Friday". I was intrigued by the book since it somehow relates to the post I published a couple of days ago. It was actually a collection of our most common superstitious and folk beliefs as Filipinos by Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz (I came to wonder how this guy over here is related to our college dean before).
Anyways, I'll enumerate some which I can remember and are pretty famous in our province. In case you can relate to these things written below, alas! you are a true blooded Filipino!
> Sweeping at night will sweep all the good fortunes away.
My grandma first told me about this when I was in grade school and I tried to sweep our floor one night, I was skeptical then and asked her how they are related but eventually followed so not to upset her.
> A pregnant woman who eats twin bananas will bear twins as well.
They said this will never happen if the pregnant woman will split the banana behind her. I can't believe in this one, the theory with how twins happen was explained during our biology class. *Smirk*
> A pregnant woman should step over her husband so he will bear the struggles during pregnancy.
Lol...I can't help but laugh but some of our neighbors back in Bohol had experience this, I can't imagine how. *confused*
> A woman should step on the foot of her husband on their wedding day so he will not mistreat her.
Aha! This really happens, try to observe church weddings on the provinces.
> Do not partake the food eaten by a pregnant woman. If you do, you will either become sleepy, drowsy or sick.
No comment!
> Sleeping with a wet hair will result to blindness.
My grandma always spanks me when I sleep with a wet hair before. I just ignored her because I love sleeping with a wet hair, it's refreshing and I can sleep faster.
> Brides shouldn’t try on their wedding dress before the wedding day or the wedding will not push through.
I remember my cousin telling me about this and she tried to put her wedding dress on to justify the belief, the wedding was a success though! :)
> A lingering black butterfly is a sign that one of your relatives just died.
This always happens but I can't really remember if someone from my clan died. We didn't receive any news.
> A person with a mole on his foot is a born adventurer.
Haha...James has a mole on his foot and he is not an adventurer. Hmmmpf!
> A person with big ears will have a long life.
My neighbors tell us my grandpa has big ears and that he will have a long life. He did live quiet awhile but not more than 100 years.
> If a got a fish bone on your throat, stroke a cat's paw on your throat to loosen the bone.
LMAO, James and my relatives would tell me to do this but I never had tried it even once.
> If a "dwende" lives in the house and the human owners are treating him well, he gives them wealth or makes their lives easy.
I almost believe on this because a former classmate of mine during my elementary days had lots of money before. But turned out, she has been stealing money from her aunt's purse. What a headache!
> Putting a coin under the shoe when joining competitions to remove stage fright and nervousness.
I had tried this way back when we had our dance contest in high school. I guess it helped but when I think of it, I guess it was just some kinda psychological thing.
> Wearing something red or polka-dots during New Year's Day.
This is something I am conscious of since I was small. I can see my grandparents wearing those polka dots and has a lot of coins on their pockets during New Year's Eve throughout the day because they thought this brings good luck.
> When taking a picture of three persons, the one in the middle will die.
If this is a contest of all beliefs, then this line would be the winner. No more further explanations.
There are actually hundreds if not thousands of them which are still alive and are practiced today. This beliefs had become our culture and are taught to the young ones the same way as how we were informed before.
On the contrary, I was not super exposed to those beliefs when I was young since my mom is a Christian and she don't believe on those things. I then learned about these special tales and talks when I started going to school and met other children. I would laugh at their stories and later refer it to my mom who will laugh louder than I did. She has her own stand but still respects them, it's still a democratic country after all.
How about you? Do you think these are all true?
> If a "dwende" lives in the house and the human owners are treating him well, he gives them wealth or makes their lives easy.
I almost believe on this because a former classmate of mine during my elementary days had lots of money before. But turned out, she has been stealing money from her aunt's purse. What a headache!
> Putting a coin under the shoe when joining competitions to remove stage fright and nervousness.
I had tried this way back when we had our dance contest in high school. I guess it helped but when I think of it, I guess it was just some kinda psychological thing.
> Wearing something red or polka-dots during New Year's Day.
This is something I am conscious of since I was small. I can see my grandparents wearing those polka dots and has a lot of coins on their pockets during New Year's Eve throughout the day because they thought this brings good luck.
> When taking a picture of three persons, the one in the middle will die.
If this is a contest of all beliefs, then this line would be the winner. No more further explanations.
There are actually hundreds if not thousands of them which are still alive and are practiced today. This beliefs had become our culture and are taught to the young ones the same way as how we were informed before.
On the contrary, I was not super exposed to those beliefs when I was young since my mom is a Christian and she don't believe on those things. I then learned about these special tales and talks when I started going to school and met other children. I would laugh at their stories and later refer it to my mom who will laugh louder than I did. She has her own stand but still respects them, it's still a democratic country after all.
How about you? Do you think these are all true?
Share this article:
