Filipino Superstitions or Sayings and Various Connotations - Part One

We Filipinos, especially the Tagalogs, have so many superstitious beliefs that writing them into a compilation including their meanings or explanations can fill a book. Certainly, there could be writers who already made such a compilation. Thus, in this piece, the comments or repartee on some sayings I shall include herein are hoped to clarify for the benefit of non-Tagalogs.

"Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan, di makakarating sa paroruunan."  It's roughly translated as one who forgets the past will not have a better future. A naughty repartee to it will be: "Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay may stiff neck." One who looks not to the past has a stiff neck. This usually applies to someone from below middle class who's lucky enough to get a very rich person as a partner and now puts on the air of arrogance of one who's born to the old rich.

 

The tabloids are replete with stories of this person's arrogant ways. An episode that tickled my fancy well was this person's taking an elevator with a coterie of bodyguards. When another person attempted to enter the same elevator, the first person haughtily remarked that another person would not be welcome to share said elevator. The second person called out the building guard saying that no one else should use the elevator of the building owned by the second person.

"Pagkahaba-haba man ng prusisyon, sa simbahan din ang tuloy."  A religious procession may take a circuitous route that still will end at the church. This saying is commonly attributed to a philandering husband, who after several flings will still return to the arms of the wife.

When I was a school boy in my hometown, I loved to sing while tending to the pot of rice being cooked at the stove. My elders would admonish me to refrain to do so as I would surely marry a widow. Of course, it did not happen as I married a single lady.

Another superstition claims that it's bad luck for a bride-to-be to try the wedding gown for fitting purposes.  The wedding may not push through. But, I have never known any aborted wedding due to such superstition.  Furthermore, it's common nowadays for brides-to-be to try the wedding gown thereby determining if some alterations will be needed.