Suzie Mendrana has just graduated from college and she is about to face her happiest moment - getting hired for her first job. She went off to a company as early as the cackle of the cock to work on her dream job. Carrying a beautiful smile and an excited face, and wearing a fully hemmed flesh-coloured uniform she has always wanted to have, she trotted past the barbeque stall at the corner of the street and walked toward the jeepney terminal. The footsteps made by her 3-inch shoes gracefully set aside the everything on its way but all of an instance, there was one thing that it had not broken thorugh, a black cat unconsciously crossing the street. She knows what was going to happen and suddenly, her delightful face turned into a drizzly one, decided to retreat and postpone the happiness for tomorrow.
Seeing a black cat crossing a street is said to bring bad luck, she knows it, being raised in a faraway province in Luzon. Her parents have trained her filled with the richness of unscientific beliefs.
Suzie is never alone. Filipinos truly have a huge sense of feeling when it comes to superstitions having been fed without science to cling on. Many inhabitants, especially the ones in the provinces, have always sacrificed the supposed profundity of daily living with the interference of many superstitious beliefs. Simple words can never persuade them to repel from these things. And proofs and evidences may not be as well.
But with the wisdom of greater civilizations, superstition has found its greatest enemy - science. The field of knowledge called science is said to be a general explanation of natural occurrences with inept organization, concise system, and strong discipline. With the advent of science, wrong beliefs finally bid its final goodbye.
From generations to generations, superstitions have been a fundamental part of rural living. Sociologists say that it shapes them, those beliefs have served to be their science. But many of these have hindered the development of progress of mankind - rumoured witches being burned at stake, earning money being rejected, and social life being sacrificed. People just can’t live without these things for, maybe, this is the best way for them to find themselves in the middle of sophistication, coping mechanisms as what they say. Science had been so difficult to understand for most of the populations. They say that its only for the geniuses, scholars, and bright minds, and so, superstitions continue to exist no matter how hard we try to hide them.
So to set the differences between science and supersition, here are some of the collections with their corresponding scientific explanations compiled in Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz’s “Don’t Take A Bath on a Friday: Philippine Superstitions and Folk Beliefs”:
- If you want to know what your lifetime partner will look like, wake up in the middle of the night and take a look at yourself in the mirror while holding a lighted candle. At first, the image in the mirror will appear to be a skeleton. After five minutes, you will see a full view of the person you will marry. (No, thanks. I’ll just be waiting for the right time.)- These gifts prefer not to be on your lover’s hands: Handkerchiefs (it’ll make him/her cry); Pointed objects (it will lead to a broken relationship)
- If a pregnant woman’s abdomen is pointed, her baby will be a boy; if it is round, the baby will be a girl.
- If a pregnant woman wants to avoid the unpleasant symptoms of pregnancy, she should step over her husband while he is sleeping and all of her symptoms will be transferred to him.)
- A pregnant woman shouldn’t have her picture taken, or her child will die at birth.
- Cutting a baby’s eyelashes during her first month will them grow long and beautiful.
- A baby who sucks on her toes means her mother will soon be pregnant again.
- If a child’s milktooth falls out, throw it up onto the roof of the house so that the rats will find it. When the new tooth grows in, it wil be as strong and as powerful as a rat’s tooth.
- Children should not be allowed to play late in the afternoon when the horizon is yellow-orange in color, because evil spirits roam around at the time.
- A person who breaks an egg and finds two yolks inside will be rich
- Do not put your purse or handbag down on the floor, or you will not prosper.
- After you dress up and you immediately discover that you wore your dress inside-out, it means that you are going to receive money shortly.
- If you change your permanent place at the family table, the person you will marry will have a short life.
- If you are to build a house, always begin during a full moon.
The impact of these beliefs still depends on the person whether he/she chooses to hold with these or not. It has been our tradition, and as we know, Filipinos are known for being firm. Firm on their words, firm on their values, firm on beliefs, and firm on customs and traditions. Nothing can stop Filipinos from making their way to greatness
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