Culture and Literature of Tanulong, SAGADA

Untitled Part 3: SPECIFIC RITUALS DONE FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

A. SIPIT

Sipit literally means a clip or a clamp. This is a ritual done two times when building a stone wall in which one is upon starting and another when it is fully completed. This job of stonewalling is done in the fields , at home or anywhere and is usually taking more than just a few days. And in between that a function might come up in which the builder might be interested to go but without doing this ritual he should not. So, in the beginning of the project, one should perform this sipit so that in case he will get an invitation he can go attend without fear of negatively impacting what he is building. And it is also done at the end of the job to close it and to pray for its strength and long endurance. This sipit is done simply by cooking meat in the site and after which sticking up a stick with a weed clipped in it. That will be the sign that sipit was done.

B. DAW-ES

Daw-es was mentioned numerous times previously along with begnas. Every time there is begnas, every family will host this ritual in their house as a means of regularly cleansing the house from any negative or bad luck. Moreover, there are still other times when a daw-es has to be performed in a normal day, apart for the occasions of begnas

C. PASUMA-A

Pasuma-a is a ritual offering a chicken to invite the dead families and ancestors home for a meal. It is believed that the spirits of the dead wants to be offered meals or drinks once in a while and that is what they living caters to. The spirits communicate this need to "visit" by telling it to the living which would normally make them sick and to be told later after consulting spiritual healers.

D. NGALAW

The ngalaw is an emergency ritual they do for someone who just suddenly gotten sick say after just coming from work or to the sick person who has gotten so bad to retrieve what seem to have been taken away soul. Such illness may have caused by encountering some very bad spirits on the way. This is maybe indicated by an excruciating pain, or any abnormally extreme pain all of a sudden.

They then prepare a gangsa, etag, chicken and a machete. One or more elder can perform the ritual. If it is to be done inside the house, the chicken may not be needed but if done outside the house, they will have to butcher the chicken. The sick person's dead ancestors are shouted in the air to go find and bring the soul of the sick person from whoever might have taken it away.

The dead ancestors are believed to be the primary ones to call for when it comes to the protection of the living from illness or death.

E. TULOD

Tolod is a a community ritual done whenever a sickness is spreading around the community. This is done to stop the spreading by sending it to another direction.

This ritual is completed by declaring the day as ubaya. Later in the morning people will go block the main entrances to the village. And then a prayer is recited by one of the elders in the same spot. After that they will leave a small piece of meat on a stick. The next day , the meat is checked if some ants has gotten on it. If the meat is clean, it means a success but if ants are on it, they will have to have another day as ubaya to rectify what has gone wrong.

F. SAPON DI DANUM (A Prayer with the water)

Sapon di danum is a prayer said by an elder to cleanse the people from negative energies after encountering a scary, shocking or any unfortunate event like if there was a fire, witnessing death, surviving from a frightening event, after coming from a funeral outside the village and after the wake of someone's death inside the community. It is basically for cleansing like the literal use of water which cleanses everything.

G. SAMYANG

Occasionally, the families perform samyang in their houses aside from what is routinely done every after harvest. Similar to doing the pasuma-a, the dead ancestors and families are called with prayer inviting them to come join the meal. They say that those dead spirits who doesn't have families to offer them chicken once in a while do feel sad.

H. AY-AYAG

Sometimes, the living get sick because their spirit is left in places they should not be in. This can be the spot where someone had an accident or it can just be that the spirit of the sick went and stayed with the spirit of a dead family member. This, of course has to be told by an spiritual healer which would often come when the person who had an accident is not getting well like what is expected. In such case, the family members would go to the spot and verbally call the name of the person to come home and not to stay in that place. In the case of the later, they would go to the direction where a dead family member was buried. They call the name, telling the dead to send the living home and not to keep it there for it doesn't belong there. Soon after, they would eat with the roasted meat and rice brought from home. On their way back, they have to hold with them a torch of rice stalk.

Spirit of the living, especially that of children, can sometimes be left in a house where they temporarily slept so it is necessary to call their names to come along when it is time to go.