Illustration by Cameron Polintan
Halloween party regarding the Philippines goes beyond the new Western notions out-of pumpkin carvings and you will trick-or-dealing with. After the merrymaking on the eve out-of October 31st, Filipinos group toward cemetery getting Undas, a society you to need honoring the fresh dead through cemetery visits, family relations gatherings, and you may food. However-and in correct Filipino manner-this type of household members get togethers commonly versus lighthearted mischief because date of the dry cause talks off otherworldly horrors regarding the Luzon, Visayas, and you may Mindanao places.
Where discover lots of trees and just the moon to guide you, Novia Italiano you must courageous the possibility of brand new manananggal, a person with wings and you will good halved muscles a for all the aswang, a profile-progressing worst soul; or the tikbalang, a half-individual, half-horse animal. Such three organizations are generally whispered from the during the Luzon, however, experiencing them is yet another tale.
Lars Salamante (dos Ab Try) off Lucban, Quezon offers that presence of the tikbalang is frequently signified by fireflies going into the room and the smell of inactive ants penetrating the air. He says that he commonly seen that it in his youthfulness domestic whenever sleeping in the grandparents’ room significantly less than a definite glass windows
Meanwhile, the fresh kapre otherwise forest monster purportedly resides in treetops, leaving only highest losing smoking butts because an indication of the presence. Chio Reyno (dos Ab Try) of Antipolo states how the concept of ghosts is actually easier to deal with, when he says which he frequently found morale. But not, recognizing the situation of one’s kapre’s facts took an encounter during the the latest trees to fully grasp.
“Nagtatago kami kasi hide and seek, tapos noong naka-upo na kami, could possibly get nahulog na malaking yosi o smoke pero walang tao sa taas,” Reyno says in the an excellent kapre stumble on he once had that have a good number of loved ones. “Nagkatinginan kami, tapos becomes na namin.”
(We had been hiding as the we were to relax and play hide and seek, as soon as i seated down, a large cigarette smoking or smoke fell of significantly more than although there was no body indeed there. We simply had to glance at one another, and then we already understood [it absolutely was good kapre].”
Based on Visayan folklore, aswangs deal with different forms according to the storyteller. Megan Maningo (2 Ab Try) from Dumaguete cards you to definitely the variety of the fresh new aswang is well known for eating unborn newborns. “They are usually discussed [to] provides a long tongue,” Maningo shows you. “They’re going [to] the fresh new rooftop of the home and you can [its language] falls on belly key of your expecting mothers, and so they attempt to bring the little one aside.” Janica Yu (dos Abdominal Are) of Iloilo shares that there exists most other products of your aswang named Maria Lobo and you will Teniente Gimo; both get person variations and are known for destroying and you may cooking human pieces.
A unique understood style of new aswang is the tiktik, whose story was utilized to scare children to visit household very early. Maningo remembers, “For those who tune in to the brand new tiktik farther out, it’s towards you. For those who listen to the latest tiktik sound nearer to you, it means it is far. You aren’t supposed to review.”
Wrote
The new amamayong is said becoming an excellent nocturnal animal you to definitely sucks the latest bloodstream out of its victims; it treks along with its lead among their hind ft and you will gets the fuel off invisibility.
Engkantos in addition to make their physical appearance into the Mindanao, but this place is additionally the place to find book horrors merely informed regarding southernmost the main Philippines such as Dipolog. Arianne Aleta (dos Abdominal Is actually) from Dipolog shares how their unique grandma accustomed tell the storyline off a good nameless creature which takes the form of “a female who does get real wings and you will…grab me out in the exact middle of the evening if i failed to dump all lice out-of my personal hair.” She acknowledges so you can understanding that this type of reports were only advised in order to instill discipline in her own once the a baby.
Regardless of the variations in profile, function and patch, Philippine mythological tales express far in common. Dominating the fresh new spooky spirits from Undas and you will Halloween night, these tales immortalize brand new training elderly people need to share in order to children: Be careful and you will aware of your own tips while the we may maybe not become simply pets doing.
