Illustration by the Cameron Polintan
Halloween night on the Philippines surpasses the Western impression off pumpkin carvings and you will key-or-treating. Following the merrymaking towards eve off Oct 31st, Filipinos group to your cemetery to possess Undas, a heritage you to definitely requires honoring the brand new dead through cemetery check outs, members of the family gatherings, and you will food. However-as well as in real Filipino trend-these types of members of the family social gatherings commonly as opposed to lighthearted mischief once the date of the dry brings out conversations away from otherworldly horrors about Luzon, Visayas, and you can Mindanao countries.
In which discover many trees and only brand new moon to help you, you have to brave the potential for the new manananggal, an individual with wings and you will good halved human anatomy a your aswang, a form-shifting worst heart; or the tikbalang, a half-individual, half-pony animal. Such three organizations can be whispered on for the Luzon, but encountering all of them is another tale.
Lars Salamante (dos Abdominal Try) off Lucban, Quezon shares your presence of tikbalang can often be signified of the fireflies going into the room additionally the smell of lifeless ants penetrating the atmosphere. He says he will seen that it inside the young people family when sleeping within his grandparents’ bed room under an obvious mug window
Meanwhile, brand new kapre or forest icon purportedly resides in treetops, making simply high losing tobacco butts once the an indication of their visibility. Chio Reyno (2 Abdominal Is actually) off Antipolo mentions how thought of spirits was more straightforward to undertake, when he states he appear to came across comfort. However, accepting possible of your kapre’s story got an experience when you look at the the newest woods to totally master.
“Nagtatago kami kasi hide and seek, tapos noong naka-upo na kami, could possibly get nahulog na malaking yosi o cig aunque walang tao sa taas,” Reyno states throughout the an excellent kapre find the guy used to have with an excellent gang of nearest and dearest. “Nagkatinginan kami, tapos will get na namin.”
(We were hiding since the we had been playing hide-and-seek, and once i seated down, a huge tobacco or cig decrease off over even though there is actually not one person truth be told there. We just was required to glance at both, and we currently understood [it absolutely was good kapre].”
Based on Visayan folklore, aswangs undertake variations according to the storyteller. Megan Maningo (2 Abdominal Is) regarding Dumaguete cards one the form of the latest aswang known to consume unborn infants. “They are usually demonstrated [to] features an extended tongue,” Maningo demonstrates to you. “They’re going [to] the brand new rooftop of the property and you will [their tongue] falls toward tummy option of your expecting mothers, as well as try to suck the infant aside.” Janica Yu (2 Abdominal Is actually) of Iloilo offers there are other items of the aswang entitled Maria Lobo and you can Teniente Gimo; both capture human variations and are also recognized for killing and you will cooking individual parts.
A special identified type of the fresh aswang is the tiktik, whose story was utilized so you can scare pupils going domestic very early. Maningo remembers, “For those who tune in to the tiktik further out, it’s towards you. For many who pay attention to the fresh tiktik sound nearer to you, it indicates this really is far. You aren’t meant to review.”
Typed
The latest amamayong is considered becoming an effective nocturnal animal one sucks brand new blood regarding their subjects; it treks along with its direct around their hind base and comes with the energy from invisibility.
Engkantos along with make their appearance from inside the Mindanao, but this particular area is also the home of novel horrors merely told throughout pa?ses que aman a los hombres estadounidenses the southernmost a portion of the Philippines particularly Dipolog. Arianne Aleta (dos Abdominal Try) regarding Dipolog offers how her grandma always tell the storyline away from a great nameless creature which will take the type of “a woman who would come on wings and you will…bring me aside in the middle of the night basically didn’t clean out the lice of my hair.” She admits to with the knowledge that these types of reports were just advised to instill abuse in her own because the an infant.
Regardless of the differences in reputation, mode and patch, Philippine mythological reports show far in accordance. Dominating the latest spooky state of mind of Undas and you can Halloween party, this type of stories immortalize the fresh new instructions seniors need to give to children: Be careful and you can attentive to their steps because the we possibly may perhaps not become simply pets to.