"Mangmang"

"Mangmang", in Filipino, this word means ignorant, foolish or stupid. Fellow Filipinos might be thinking I'm talking about ignorance in this article but let me remind you all, I am talking about the activity we are doing during "ketna", a time when planting season is done. Time of rest. We usually do it twice. First, was when the planting season in the other part of our mountain we called "Agyo" is done. The second part is in the central or main village "Vabley".

Yesterday was a day in which our community was having the communal rest day of the people from long labour in the farm. I was so busy that I have no chance to open my accounts in read cash and noise. I was like a top who runs back and forth from accomplishing different tasks. 

Started from the morning I brought home sugarcane leaves being collected from the farm, cleaned and cut by my sister-in-law. I bartered our native rice with glutinous rice as well since we don't have one. It's the advantage of being the youngest among the women from my in-laws since I always request favours from the older sisters. I am being fortunate my request are granted.😅
Where would I use the sugarcane leaves for? Well, it is used to wrap glutinous rice with peanuts in it. I have to weave it to form an envelope to serve as a wrapper for "Tupig".

I cannot remember when was the last time I cooked this Tupig so I forgot how to weave so I asked for assistance from one of my sister-in-law to teach me again, I was always stuck in the middle of weaving😅. I gulped my pride and went back to her house again and anticipates her teasing.😁What a coincidence when my mother-in-law and a female cousin of my husband was there too.🤭 So it became 3 versus 1🤣.

We ate afterwards in that house. Later, after few trials of weaving until I was able to do it perfectly, we transferred to our house. The boys(my sons with their cousins) cooked our viand, we ate again. As I watch the young boys, It's so different many years ago when our children were still young. That time they were only sitted on the corner or playing around while their fathers do the preparations. Today they were the ones who prepare the chicken to be cooked. How time flies swiftly. They are all big boys now.

In the afternoon, I was accompanied by my son and his cousin to collect banana leaves for the patupat.While husband and my other children were filling the envelopes with glutinous rice with peanuts.

We started to cook for the tupig in the evening since it needs lot of time to get cooked.  Together with my eldest daughter, we ended wrapping the "patupat" at 11:09 in the evening.Patupat in most places in the Philippines is known as "Suman" but we differ in fillings.Suman has caramelized coconut as a filling or just plain glutinous rice with concentrated coconut oil without any filling. Our version has ground roasted peanuts with sugar. Similarly, we also cook the plain one.

I woke up in the morning and steamed the Patupat.

In the morning, when everything was ready, I started to segregate it to every relatives(not everyone)😅. I realize i will be needing a more bigger pot.This sharing runs everytime this event arrives.Its been so long when I did this because even I find it difficult to do the preparations, but I still prepared for our consumption.I do not want my children to go out feeling envy on other kids with the food prepared by their mothers and come home with enviousness in their faces.

Let me introduce why we are doing this practice. It is a part of our culture as an Igorot. Mangmang is the procedure in which we strengthen the bonding between our kins.Mangmang will never be perfect without "Pinikpikan", a butchered chicken, feathers burned over a fire and boiled together with salted meat that was long stored in its storage container. We don't perform this practice when the family is not complete. When the family members are all present, that is the time when we can perform mangmang. However, when the family is not complete, we perform a get-together occasions we call a picnic.Extended relatives are invited so we transfer from one house to house giving our intestines space to be replenished by and by.

Originally, mangmang is not only done during this planting season but also in situations when one member of the family met misfortunes and bad dreams. It is a way of cleansing away bad luck from the family. Another more complicated practice in connection to this is "Jo-eh". It needs a pig to be slaughtered, mangmang will be performed in the evening.

It is also a way of bonding with our ancestors, elders said that during mangmang, our ancestors come and feast with us.  So, during the meal, we have to place a bit of rice and a chicken on a plate and leave it in the corner. I was even curious what our elders are whispering while leaving the plate.😅. I tried to ask one and he said that he is inviting the spirits to eat. Spirits get mad also when they are not invited.
I hope I am not confusing my readers regarding this.😅

When I was a child, my foster parents used to perform the practice in the city. I realized that being an Igorot, you bring your culture everywhere that is, if you value it. I remembered I was not allowed to make sounds (falling objects) or spill any liquid once the chicken was started to get executed😅. My father said it is a way of respecting the ancestors who come to visit. It might scare them away. The first part he said was right according to an elder in our neighbourhood. He added that in performing this practice, spills and sounds should be prevented as it will bring bad luck again. If you mistakenly failed to perform it perfectly, you have to do it over again. You need to slaughter another chicken again but the next time we have to do it at night as everybody is asleep and fewer tendencies of spills and falling of objects will happen. After the procedure, we have to leave the fire burning. We use fine rice hulls instead of logs to prevent fire accidents as we can't watch it overnight so if we use rice hulls, we can just leave the embers burning. We let it burn until morning.
For our part, we use a big candle that could last till morning because we don't have a fireplace accessible since the renovation of our house. I wish for it soon as we needed it most during cold days.

The fire symbolizes hope in our culture. It was a gift from "Lumawig" our local term for our creator. There was a story of this from my ancestors I think I will discuss it in another article if I have the chance.

Since I am a Christian and most of the people in here, we still perform the practice but in the honour of God and not to spirits.😁Though there are still some others who continue the old ways of doing the practices. We can't remove it since it's part of our culture.

I hope I was able to share our culture in the precise manner I wish you were able to comprehend.

Thank you for reading.❤💞

> Xzeon<