Are you familiar with these “pamahiin” (superstitious beliefs) about funerals or interments?
Yes, I am familiar with the two pamahiins. My mother was pregnant when her grandfather died. She was told that she would be sleepy when she would be due to deliver the baby. Mother said she did feel sleepy when she labored. Some other pamahiins my family observe: Direct family members of the deceased (sons, fathers, grandsons or even brothers) are not allowed to carry the casket so that death won’t haunt them. In the Catholic tradition, a deceased is made to clasp a rosary. But the rosary should be cut so that death won’t find its way in circle within the family. That means, death might happen one after another in the family. When our matriarch died, her coffin was raised and all members of the family passed through under it. It was meant to give everyone peace with her spiritual body now on a higher plane. After the interment, flowers are burned and people pass over the smoke so that the bad elements of grief wont follow the mourners and sympathizers home. The cortege should not take
1.) In the house where a wake is going on, no one should sweep the floor otherwise,one may be swept away. 2. In attending wakes for prayers for the dead, one should not visit two houses in the same time frame, or some members of your family might be dead soon. 3. When you send off a dead man for burial, never look back at the house where the dead was laid for a wake, or many family members might be dead soon. These are superstitious beliefs which are passed from generation to generation. There is no swupporting evidence to these beliefs, but the younger Filipinos just follow as a respect for their elders.
