Never bring home food from a wake

Among all the superstitions I've encountered being raised in the Philippines, there is one that I follow faithfully.

Never bring home food from a wake, unfinished or otherwise.

Here's why.

My father died when I was 7 months pregnant.  During his wake, I was alternating between nibbling on food and greeting guests.  At one point, I absent-mindedly stuffed a pack of half-eaten crackers in my pocket and promptly forgot about it.

As midnight came and all the visitors had left, we decided to close the room for the night and head home.  A man wearing a white barong and trousers suddenly walked in.  He claimed to know my father through business and was late in arriving because he came all the way from the province.

My father was retired for 10 years and to our knowledge, did not have any business dealings in the aforementioned province, but we shrugged it off and let the man in.  He prayed over my father for a while, but as he turned to leave, he refused to sign the guestbook.  Some superstition or other in his family, he claimed.  Again, we let it go.

Still,we began to feel uneasy.  My brother peeked out the door and only found an empty corridor.  We started making half-hearted jokes (really, we were scared out of our wits) that our visitor may have been a spectre as we locked up and made our way home.  In the car, I noticed the pack of crackers and a small bundle of string near my pocket.  I brushed the string off and thought nothing further of it.

Back at home, we all went straight to bed.  Sometime in the night, I felt something nudge my stomach.  Fearful for the baby, I opened my eyes and saw a hand clutching my own, trying to drag me down and off the bed.  It was a dark hand wrapped in rags.  I screamed my husband's name repeatedly.

My husband woke me up then, panicky as I was apparently moaning and gurgling in my sleep.  On my pillow, I saw that bit of string again and on my dresser, the crackers.  I immediately threw the crackers in the garbage and flushed the string down the toilet.

To this day, I try to stay away from the edge of the bed.  And I never, ever bring home food from a wake.

How to prevent curses, bati, or usog

Recently, my daughter went through 4 days of 40+ fever.  Dengue tests were negative, CBC and urine tests were very much normal.  Our pedia advised us to keep the fever down with ibuprofen and sponge baths and wait it out, expecting other symptoms to manifest after the 3rd day of fever.

As we'd visited our family in the province a day before the fever started, our family and friends  had other suggestions, all centering around the idea that our baby may have been a victim of "usog" or "bati" (i.e., curse, often attributed to dwarves or possibly by an unsuspecting relative who was overly fond of the child).

Along with the speculations came preventive measures that I'd thought I'd share with believers and "better safe than sorry" parents:

(1) Pin a blessed (religious) medallion on the baby's clothes

(2) Rub luya on baby's stomach and soles of her feet, then pin the luya to her clothes

(3) Have relatives apply a bit of their saliva on the baby (usually by licking their thumbs and doing the sign of the cross)

(4) Boil the clothes the baby was wearing on the day of the trip.  Some suggested having the baby take in 2 tablespoons of the resulting broth.  This will only work if the clothes haven't gone through the laundry yet.

(5) Undergo cleansing via "tawas" (can only be done by professionals!)

Have you also considered that the baby may have pilay that can be remedied with a good massage (also only to be done by professionals)?

Do take these with a grain of salt! ;)  I myself refused to give my baby the broth of her boiled clothes. 

Incidentally, our pedia's initial diagnosis did follow through.  Rashes broke out on the 4th day, afterwhich the fever subsided.  She likely picked up a case of roseola infantum as she turned 2 years old.

Still, I thought this would be a good start to my series of blogs on supersitions and folklore.  ;)

Happy Halloween, All!