Illustration from the Cameron Polintan

Halloween throughout the Philippines goes beyond brand new Western notions of pumpkin carvings and you can secret-or-treating. Adopting the merrymaking towards the eve regarding Oct 31st, Filipinos group to the cemetery having Undas, a customs that needs honoring the newest deceased as a result of cemetery visits, household members gatherings, and you will restaurants. However-and in genuine Filipino style-these family relations reunions commonly as opposed to lighthearted mischief given that time of one’s lifeless cause discussions off otherworldly horrors on the Luzon, Visayas, and you may Mindanao regions.

Where there is loads of trees and simply new moonlight to guide you, you must brave the potential for brand new manananggal, a person having wings and you can a great halved human body a for all the aswang, a form-moving forward evil spirit; or the tikbalang, a 1 / 2-peoples, half-pony animal. Such three entities are commonly whispered in the during the Luzon, but experiencing them is an additional tale.

Lars Salamante (2 Abdominal Try) out-of Lucban, Quezon offers your exposure of tikbalang might be signified from the fireflies entering the area therefore the smell like inactive ants acute the air. The guy mentions he tend to experienced that it inside the youthfulness family when sleep in the grandparents’ rooms less than an obvious mug screen

At the same time, the kapre or forest monster supposedly stays in treetops, leaving just high losing tobacco butts because an indication of their presence. Chio Reyno (2 Ab Is actually) from Antipolo mentions how thought of spirits are better to accept, when he states which he appear to discovered spirits. Although not, accepting the scenario of kapre’s story took an experience for the brand new woods to fully master.

“Nagtatago kami kasi hide-and-seek, tapos noong naka-upo na kami, may nahulog na malaking yosi o smoke aunque walang tao sa taas,” Reyno claims from the good kapre run into he once had that have an excellent number of members of the family. “Nagkatinginan kami, tapos gets na namin.”

(We had been concealing as we were to tackle hide and seek, as soon as i seated down, an enormous cig or tobacco decrease out-of significantly more than though there try no one here. We simply was required to see both, and in addition we already realized [it was a good kapre].”

Considering Visayan folklore, aswangs undertake different forms according to storyteller. Megan Maningo (dos Abdominal Is actually) regarding Dumaguete cards that the particular the fresh new aswang known to eat unborn newborns. “They’re usually revealed [to] keeps an extended tongue,” Maningo explains. “Each goes [to] the brand new roof of the home and you can [its tongue] goes down towards the stomach switch of your own women that are pregnant, and they attempt to draw the infant out.” Janica Yu (2 Ab Is) of Iloilo shares there exists most other products of one’s aswang named Maria Lobo and you can Teniente Gimo; one another grab human models and tend to be noted for destroying and you will cooking peoples bits.

Another type of recognized brand of the latest aswang ‘s the tiktik, whoever facts was used to help you scare college students to visit domestic early. Maningo recalls, “For individuals who pay attention to the tiktik further out, it’s towards you. For people who hear new tiktik voice nearer to your, this means it is much. You’re not designed to review.”

Penned

The amamayong is claimed are a nocturnal creature that sucks the new blood out-of its sufferers; it treks along with its lead in between their hind ft and you will has the fuel of invisibility.

Engkantos together with make physical appearance when you look at the Mindanao, but this particular area is even the place to find unique horrors simply told from the southernmost a portion of the Philippines such as for example Dipolog. Arianne Aleta (dos Ab Try) off Dipolog offers how their unique grandma accustomed give the storyline out of an excellent nameless creature which takes the form of “a woman who come on wings and you will…take myself out in the center of the night basically did not reduce all of the lice off my locks.” She acknowledges to comprehending that this type of reports was in fact just advised in order to instill abuse in her once the an infant.

Regardless iranГ­ hembra of the variations in profile, means and you will plot, Philippine mythological tales display much in common. Dominating the new spooky feeling of Undas and Halloween night, such reports immortalize brand new training older people need to give to help you children: Be cautious and you may alert to your strategies once the we would not function as simply animals around.