Manalo, Kimuel M.

Readings in Philippine History

CE2-3 October 3, 2019

On the baths in the Philippines, from the time when people were born, Filipinos
are brought up in the water. They bath themselves at all hours, for cleanliness and
recreation, and children just born are bathed in the rivers and springs of cold water.
When leaving the bath, they anoint the hand with ajonjoli mixed with civet. In
comparison with today’s tradition of Filipinos, after a woman gave birth to her child,
there will be a baptism ceremony. It is an entire process that takes place during the
course of the infant's baptism, which typically takes about 20 to 30 minutes. This is not a
full immersion into water but, rather, a sprinkling of water droplets across the forehead.

On the language of the Filipinos, there is no single or general language of the

Filipinas extending throughout the islands; but all of them, though there are many
different tongues are so much alike that they may be learned and spoken in a short
time. Unlike in today’s communication of Filipinos, almost all of us use Tagalog as our
medium of language but there are some cities who don’t use Tagalog and can’t even
understand and they prefer to speak their traditional language but even though they are
not used to speak Tagalog, they could speak English so that they could communicate to
other Filipinos despite the fact they have distinct languages.

On the letters of the Filipinos, they use baybayin as a medium but now Filipinos
use the modern Filipino alphabet and it is made up of 28 letters, which includes the
entire 26-letter set of the ISO basic Latin alphabet, the Spanish Ñ and the Ng digraph of
Tagalog. It replaced the Pilipino alphabet of the Fourth Republic.

On the civilities, terms of courtesy, and good breeding among the Filipinos, it is
said that the Filipinos are not so ceremonious in their actions; yet they have their
politeness and good breeding, especially the Tagalogs, who are very civil and courteous
in word and action. Upon meeting one another, they practice our custom of uncovering
the head—not that they use hats, caps, or bonnets; but they wore a piece of cloth like a
towel, some three of for palmos long, which they wound around the head in becoming
fashion like the ancient crowns or diadems. In our current civilities, terms of courtesy,
and good breeding among the Filipinos, in greeting other people that you know, we tend
to say “hi”, “hello”, and some of us just use hand gesture like waving especially when
they are too far. Some also hug other people because it is their way to greet them.

Concerning the false heathen religion, idolatries, and superstitions of the

Filipinos, Filipinos worshipped different kinds of things. The Tagalogs adored a blue
bird, as large as a thrush, and called it Bathala, which was among them a form of
divinity. They also worshipped the crow. Besides these, they had a thousand other
superstitions. If they beheld a serpent or lizard, or heard anyone sneeze, they always
retrace their steps, and on no account go further at that time, for such an occurrence
would be an evil omen. Filipino tradition about superstition is very different on today’s
beliefs because Filipinos worshipped God above all things and nothing or no one could
ever be above God. People also worshipped some saints because some of them are
patrons of some things and example are some of them are patrons of sickness,
because of that, they tend to pray and ask for help and for the healing.

On the marriages, dowries, and divorce among the Filipinos, the tradition is very
dissimilar on our current tradition because we have no divorce unlike on the past, they
could divorce but there are so many conditions to be considered. Dowries are still
practice until today also. Marriage is very sacred and the ones who are married should
be committed to each other. There are some religions also who could marry many wives
as much as they want and those are the Muslims as long as they could provide the
needs of all his wives, there would be no problem with it because it is legal on their
behalf.

The manner which the Filipinas had of shrouding and burying their dead were
also somehow diverse with our current tradition. The first and last concern of the
Filipinos on cases of sickness was to offer some sacrifices to their anitos, or diwatas,
which were their gods. They make ceremonies, sacrifices including slaves and many
others on ones funeral while on the current Filipino funeral, a hearse takes the casket to
the church in a funeral procession. After the funeral service and mass are concluded, a
hearse takes the casket to the cemetery for the burial. For nine days after the burial,
also known as a novena, mourners say prayers such as the rosary.
 On feasting and intoxication among the Filipinos, the time for their feast, wherein
they ate and drank to excess upon occasions of illness, death, and mourning. Such was
also their custom at bethrotals, weddings and sacrifices, and with guests and visitors.
Feast of Filipinos in today’s tradition were celebrated based from different events.
Filipinos makes a celebration when it is the time of the feast day of their patron saint of
their barangay. People tend to celebrate on a whole day and some also invites bands
so that other people who are passing by would enjoy being at their barangay. Also,
when Filipinos eat they would use “Kamay” which is literally translated to “hand,” and
kamayan refers to the traditional Filipino practice of eating with the hands. The term is
also used to refer to a specific type of Filipino feast known as the “boodle fight”.

On usury and slavery among the Filipinos, it is practice since ancient times unlike
today, slavery is not practice anymore nevertheless, people who are having a hard time
dealing with everyday life tends to hire an assistant or the one which we call “katulong”
and then they are paid according to their deal.

The manner in which names are conferred among the Filipinos is that, when a
child is born, it is the mother’s duty to give it a name; and whatever appellations she
gives it must remain its name. The names are most often conferred on account of
certain circumstances – as, for example Malacas, which signifies man of strength.
Today, parents could name their child based on any name they want to give their child
whether they have meanings or not. Thus, the Philippine naming custom is
coincidentally identical to the Spanish and Portuguese name customs and to an extent
Chinese naming customs. For the most part, most Filipinos abide by the
Spanish system of using both paternal and maternal surnames, the latter constituting
the "middle name".

We could say that Filipinos have a lot of changes since the traditional times
whether it is to improve our country or not. Some of the traditions based from Fr. Pedro
Chirino were still practice and some are also not. Some Filipinos still practice the
ancient Filipino customs and tradition because it is the one they grew up with and it is
the tradition that they are used to that’s why they tend to practice it over and over until it
is passed on from generations to other generations.