lawayan mo

i'm from the province. i grew up with both catholic and muslim lolo's and lola's who were very superstitious. every day of my growing up years my life was hindered one way or another by these pesky superstitions. i never believed in them. at a very young age i cooked up a theory. if i don't believe in them, then they wouldn't hold true. and i had the same theory with ghosts in the closet, ghouls under the bed, the white lady on the porch and so on and so on. pretty smart for a young girl huh? i never believed in them and look where i am now. still alive, right?

mamang, my moms mom, with her gentle voice would chastise me all the time for not heeding her superstitions. let's just say i was very matigas ang ulo. i wasn't allowed to cut my nails after sundown. i wasn't given a reason why. much to her dismay, i would sneak into the bathroom, turn open the shower, and sit myself on the toilet bowl and cut away. smiling at myself i remember thinking nalusutan ko si lola. there were a lot more reminders my brother and i had to heed - - no passing under ladders, not to go out of the house when black cats cross the street (how stupid is that? there were black stray cats everywhere in our neighborhood), the need to knock on the door three times on your way out of a house, and a slew of more ridiculousness. or so i thought.

a few days ago my son rashid experienced a different kind of superstition very popular here in Luzon. it was his birthday last sunday so my in-laws' lolos and lolas, titos and titas came to greet the birthday boy with a visit. bearing gifts and kisses they smothered the poor little boy :)

then, a weird thing happened. funny actually. an elderly lola praised rashid about his bulging tummy and his bald head, she said,

"ang kiyoot naman nitong anak mo Sarah, bilog na bilog ang ulo at tumataba na siya!" (said with a lilting laguna accent)

"salamat po," i replied

"ay naku, halika rashid lawayan kita," came the dreaded superstition.

i just sat there looking at my son. his dumbfounded expression was a classic. his expression told me he wanted to run in the opposite direction as the wet saliva'd finger was fast approaching his tummy. he was actually looking directly at me, his eyes pleading to get him out of his "sticky" situation. at that moment i couldn't help but laugh. laugh at the expression on my son's face and at the evolution of the dreaded superstitions.

whichever part of the country, the pamahiins are still thriving. i don't think it will ever go away. it has been embedded in the Filipino culture and will always be passed on from generation to generation. maybe its just up to the children to decipher which is foolish enough to discard and which is rational to imbibe.

hay naku, ang Pinoy nga naman...

hoy! lawayan mo!