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- Title:
- Pagan Food Rites
- Date Created:
- 2021-06-04
- Description:
- Perhaps because fasting was a pre-colonial mourning custom called “sipa” in Tagalog, missionaries had little issue explaining Catholic fasting. During days of sorrow such as sipa one ate only vegetables. The pagan custom called “tibao” was still active according to San Antonio. On the third or fourth day at mealtime, “the best place was left vacant for the dead guest” while relatives would “eat and drink in a splendid feast” and recount the good deeds of the deceased in stories and songs. Missionaries were removing the superstitious feature and instead emphasising prayers for the deceased during tibao. Weddings had three days of eating, drinking, dancing and singing. A pagan practice that had been eliminated was for the bride and groom on their bridal bed, to each sit on the laps of old women serving as marriage sponsors. The women would hand feed the couple from the same plate and have them both drink from the same cup. The couple would pledge their love and guests would shout in gaiety, drink, dance, sing. The pagan priestess called a “catalona” would then rise and extend many blessings to the newlyweds. Customs were not uniform throughout the archipelago although there were similarities. The Catholic priest had to assert new church customs. By linking them to existing practices, the new rituals could slip into indio lifestyle. As other records note, the inclusion of pork, sweets and alcoholic beverage during fiestas aided mission work. Food was a tool of religious conversion.
- Subjects:
- Fasts and feasts -- Catholic Church Spain -- Colonies -- Asia -- Social life and customs Spain -- Colonies -- Asia -- Religious life and customs
- Exhibition:
- J San Antonio
- Source:
- A typical Franciscan missionary. By Jose Lozano in the Karuth Album, 1858. (A century after Fr. San Antonio’s era) Ayala Museum Collection.
- Type:
- Image;Still Image
- Format:
- image/jpeg
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Pagan Food Rites", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
- Reference Link:
- felicepstamaria.net/items/coll225.html