II.

SPANISH TIMES

LITERATURE OF RELIGION AND MORALITY

NOTES

If there is any difference between Philippine literature and the literature of other Asian
countries, it is due to Christianity Easily, Christianity constitutes the strongest influence wrought
by Spanish occupation upon our literature. So pervasive was the Catholic religion in the
literature, so intimate and manifold was the relationship between the two, that except for a
few types, entire literary body of this age might as well be called religious literature.
Certainly its bulk was the literature of religion and morality.

POEMS
The most Ladino poems with verse lines written in Tagalog and then in Spanish were
written in the early 1600s and the first poems in Tagalog were written in the early 1700s.
Religious in tone and subject matter, most of them were veritable catechetical lessons or outright
prayers and Marian poems by friars (including novenas and sermons).

PROSE
The most famous piece of moralistic literature of the period was Father Modesto be
Castros Urbana at Feliza. On the literal level it is an exchange of letters between two sisters,
one in the city and the other in the province; on the allegorical level, it is a portrayal of urban
and rural life, and a code of conduct for ideal girl in almost all situations, from courtship to
marriage; in almost all places, from Church to home; in her relations with God and man. It is
full of moral advice, and the didactic tone is unmistakable. The proper young woman of this time
lived by this book.

PASYON- THE PASSION OF CHRIST

The most famous and most lasting religious literature is the Pasyon, a rendering in
vernacular of the life and Passion of Christ, in stanzas of five rhyming verse lines.
The four tagalog versions are the de Belen (1704) the Guian (1750), the Pilapil (1814)
and the de la Merced (1852).
Often memorized, it is chanted throughout most of Holy Week in shifts of three to four
hours each. Thus chanted it is called the Pabasa (Reading. So widespread is it, especially in the
Tagalog region that it is sometimes referred to as the Tagalog epic.

BUHAY (LIFE OR LIFE STORY)

Although not represented in this book, mention must be made of buhays, lives of the
saints and of Biblical characters, and even of historical-legendary characters written like
metrical tales and as long. There are around 250 of such Lives with long titles, quiet a
number of which are at the Lopez museum.
Example: Buhay ni San Isidro Labrador at ng kanyang esposang si Santa Maria de la Cabeza;
nagpapalamnan sa librong ang ngala, i, La luz del Minestral na isinulat sa uicang castile ni Padre
Francisco Butiha by Pascual Poblete

VERSE DRAMATIZATONS
Performed outdoor like street dramas, religious verse plays (or dramatizations as
distinguished from full-length dramas) make up another group of literature directly descended
from religious teachings or devotions. The mystery and morality plays of Europe may be their
literary forbears.
There is the Panunuluyan (seeking entrance) performed on Christmas Eve with
townspeople taking the parts of Jesus and Mary seeking abode in Bethlehem. The partakers go
from house to house and are, as in the Bible, consistently refused until finally they wind up at
around midnight in the stable which in this case is the Church where midnight mass is then
started with a live Belen. Its value and interest as literature lie in the verse-dialogues that are
recited at each stop with the climax in Church.
Another is the Salubong (Meeting or Encounter) performed on Easter dawn. The
Resurrected Christ and the Mother of Sorrows in carrosas (carriages), carried or pulled by
townspeople, start from divergent points of the town and meet joyously at the Church patio
where an angel comes down from above by means of a pulley-like contraption and removes
Marys black veil to signify the end of mourning. While doing so a verse is recited for which is
recited for which an angel has been carefully chosen and trained. The church bells then peal
triumphantly to mark the end of Lent and the beginning of Easter, whereupon all the children of
the town jump up and down if they want to grow up.
Next is the Alay (offering) performed every day of May before a side altar to the Virgin
Mary. The offering of flowers follows a fixed pattern and is accompanied by verse songs which
the girls know by heart.
The Pangaluluwa (freely translated-playing ghost) is performed on the eve of All Saints
Day whereby young boys and girls, supposed to be souls in purgatory released on this one day of
the year, go around from house to house seeking alms. If refused, they steal the homeowners
chicken, which is then cooked into arroz caldo later in the night for a repast among friends, the
victim of the theft included. Verses also accompany the seeking of alms. The American Trick or
Treat has similarities to this practice.

The Hosana is played out in makeshift stages in the church patio on Palm Sunday, which
commemorates Jesuss triumphant entry into Jerusalem.

RELIGIOUS DRAMAS-CENACULO, TIBAG

The best-loved long drama is the Cenaculo-Christs Passion, Here and there in the
country, the Cenaculo is still staged during the entire Holy Week.
The Cenaculo is actually the pasyon dramatized. It is divided into several parts-one part
for each night of Holy Week. Each performance lasts from three to four hours. In Malibay, Pasay
for example, the entire Cenaculo cycle starts with the Creation and ends with the Resurrection.
Hardly anybody know, however, of the Tibag (Dig) and that it is actually a relatively long
play.
The Tibag is a reenactment of Helena of Constantilopes search for the true Cross. At a
certain part of a town three mounds are set up. Each one is dug up and yields three crosses. The
identity of the true cross is established by a miracle. Verses are recited during the digging. The
performance is climaxed by a procession through the town, popularly known as the Santacruzan
(Holy Cross)
In modern times, the Tibag has been reduced to this triumphant end, the Santacruzan, in
which the true cross is carried in procession. With the Flores de Mayo (Flowers of May and
climax of the Alay) these two festive processions culminate the May months in many a Filipino
town.

METRICAL TALES
AWIT and CORRIDO
NOTES

The Awit and Corrido, were the best-known and most entertaining forms of secular
literature during this period. They were the Philippine versions of the European metrical tale or
medieval romance. Stories from the French Charlemagne cycle and the Spanish El Cid
reached the Philippines.
Both imitative and original, Filipinos writers notably Francisco Balagtas and Jose de la
Cruz and several other writers came up with the awit and corrido, which defined, are long
chivalric-heroic-legendary-religious poems verse tales dealing with the loves and adventures of
European nobility especially those of France and Spain. Settings, names of places and
personage are European.
If the stories from the original source are simply retold in the vernacular, or as we would
now say, borrowed, as for examples, Ibong Adarna or Siete Infantes de Lara, with a little
transformation here and there, the narrative is generally called a corrido.
This borrowing however did not constitute plagiarism for from the start, the source of
the story is acknowledge and the act of borrowing is admitted as such.
If everything else is retained, but the story itself is wholly the product of the writers
imagination, as in Florante at Laura, then the narrative is called an awit.
Structurally the corrido is usually rendered in octosyllabic quatrains while the awit is
rendered in dodesyllabic quatrains.
Corridos and awits are said to have been witten in several Philippine dialects although
the Tagalogs seem to have written the greatest number. By now the reader must know that the
awit and corrido are not epics.
Although basically initiative in subject matter and structure, the originally and facility
with which the Filipino authors retell such long tales in verse, creating something Filipino in
the process is not to be minimized. We seem to excel in transforming whatever is foreign into
something uniquely ours. One cannot resist the temptation to cite the jeepney which is and is not
an American jeep, but which is definitely Filipino.

VERSE GAMES and RITUALS

NOTES

KARAGATAN AND DUPLO

The Karagatan and Duplo are really not plays in the sense that plays are now
understood.