Pamahiin at its finest

Good day everyone I hope that all are ok. Well right now Im already ok, actually right now we are about to sail since Im going back to Manila since the funeral of my mom was already done last friday.

When we are at the port a while ago while waiting for the bus we met our auntie which is the youngest sister of my mom who is also returning to Manila since she just attended the funeral of my mom, and according to her, my father should leave our house till afternoon. Coz as per pamahiin or superstition belief the soul of the one who passed away will return to her/his house. Although this is the first time that we heard that kind if superstition my brother D3 called brother D2 to instruct him to leave the house with our father.

Actually its not the only superstitious belief that we are not familiar with, since we born and grow up in Manila we are not familiar with those belief actually all of us (me & my siblings) have no idea of all superstition when immediate family member died.

Here are some of them that was told us to follow;

• Bawal magmano sa harap ng ataul. As a Filipino its already our tradition to kiss the hands of the elder as a sign if showing them respect. But someone who is on the burial told us that kissing hand of the elder in front of the coffin is not allowed

• Bawal ang immediate family member na magsindi ng kandila. Yes you read it right we are not also allowed to light the candle during the burial, we should ask someone who is not a family member to light it for us

• Bawal kumilos ang family member. When we reached our home in the province, we were told by a relative that they hired somebody to do all the household chores and everything . As in we have maid in an instance, one who cooks and the other 3 are helpers who will wash the dishes, serves foods and everything.

• We are not allowed to clean the house. Well Im familiar with this since our grandmom's burial on my mother side was in our own house back then

• We are not allowed to take a bath in our house. So we have to go to the house of my auntie everytime that we need to take a bath.

• Those married children are not allowed to talk our father after the funeral. If you are married and your husband/wife is still alive, you are not allowed to talk to the widower of your family member. Imagine how hard it is to the widower, in time of grieving he does not have someone to talk to.

• Bawal pagpatungpatungin yung mga plato or baso after gamitin. I will not translate this one since I think I will have a hard time thinking of the right word to use haha

If I am not mistaken those superstitous belief was started during the Spaniards Colony, well actually I am not sure since history is not my favorite subject. Haha one thing for sure those superstitious was translated over and over again.

During the funeral mass we are glad that the priest of the chapel who conducted it was great in giving homily. And he said on the homily that those superstitious that was not helpful to us must be forgotten and he also contradict some of those haha. And while doing the homily he tried to put some humor on it. Well he's one of the priest that I listened to who is cool. Although at first he use their native language, so we did not undetstand some of the things that he says since we are all born and raised in manila.

Having pamahiin or superstitous belief is one of the things that I do not like here in my country. Coz every place they have different tradition as if it is part of the law that is not written in the book.

Sometimes we do not want to follow those beliefs but we have no choice out of fear that it may have a negative impact on us.

Thats all for today. Thank you