HILIGAYNON

AIRA JEAN PRAILE

• LOCATION: Philippines (Western Visayas)

• POPULATION: 5.4 million
• LANGUAGE: Hiligaynon
• RELIGION: Pre-Christian belief system, coexisting with Catholicism

LOCATION
• The Western Visayas region of the Philippines includes Panay island, Negros
Occidental, and Romblon. The region's population numbered 5.4 million in 1990,
all speakers of Hiligaynon Ilongo or closely related dialects. Hiligaynon speakers
constitute approximately 10 percent of the national population. They inhabit one
of the major rice-producing areas of the Philippines. The landscape consists of
broad plains stretching between mountain ranges. Large rivers deposit the
volcanic sediments that make the lowlands fertile.
LANGUAGE
• Spoken throughout the Western Visayas region. Hiligaynon intonation is noted
for its gentle lilt under which, it is said, a curse may go unrecognized. The narrow
straits link Panay and western Negros, and Hiligaynon is spoken on both shores.
FOLKLORE
• The Maragtas epic, an imaginative nineteenth-century reworking of Panay folk
memories, tells of the migration to the Philippines in AD 1250 of the
Bornean datus (chiefs) Puti, Sumakwel, Bangkaya, Balakasusa, Paiburong,
Dumangsil, Lubay, and Dumalogdog. They had led their followers there to
escape the tyranny of the Srivijayan empire. The datus bought the coastal lands
of Panay from the indigenous (native) people with gold, pearls, and other
ornaments (the native people moved inland).
RELIGION
• Among the Hiligaynon, a pre-Christian belief system coexists with the Catholic
one brought by the Spaniards. The two exert mutual influence on each other, as
when the Santo Niño, the image of the Child Jesus as World Sovereign, is
bathed to summon rain or attract good luck. The native beliefs divide the
universe into three parts: the upperworld, middleworld, and lowerworld. The
upperworld houses at its peak the udtohanon , which is God and his favorite
angels who will pass the final judgment but are otherwise remote from human
 affairs. Lower down in the upperworld reside the langitnon, angelic beings who
live above the clouds. In the awan-awan (between the clouds and the earth but
still in the upper-world) live the spirits of the wind, rain, thunder, lightning,
typhoons, and whirlwinds; supreme among them is the tagurising who lives
where the sun rises. The middleworld (the earth) is the home to the dutan-
on, spirits expelled from the upper-world for rebelling against God; they are
identified according to where they first landed, for example, in trees, the river, or
the sea. The underworld includes hell, in front of whose gate is a hollow pit where
the engkanto, the malevolent (evil) spirits, live with their reptilian pets; the
underworld regions are connected to the middleworld through a tunnel called
the bungalog.
• Each community has specialists who are able to communicate with spirits and
heal diseases thought to be caused by spirits. They also recover lost objects,
predict the future, and discover the causes of misfortunes. The most important of
these specialists is the baylan, a medium whom a spirit has befriended and
granted powers. To increase the power of his rituals, the baylan often adds Latin
prayers and Catholic sacred objects.
MAJOR HOLIDAY
• The Hiligaynon celebrate Santacruzan with parades and feasting each May. The
holiday commemorates the time when St. Helena (c.248–c.328) discovered the
cross on which Christ was believed to have been crucified.
RIGHTS OF PASSAGE
• Persons wanting to marry consult with their siblings and other relatives before
approaching their parents for consent and support. The boy's family arranges a
meeting with the girl's family to discover if the girl has already been promised to
another; this serves as a public announcement to discourage other suitors. The
boy's family employs a spokesperson to learn whether the girl's parents have
accepted the proposal. If they have, the arrangements, including the prospective
groom's term of bride service, are arranged at another meeting, the padul-
ong, after which the engagement becomes binding and the girl is no longer to be
seen in the company of other boys.
• On the night before the wedding, both sides attend a party at the bride's parents'
house. The church ceremony itself includes ritual acts that are meant to ensure
the wife's subservience and fertility. Formerly, a sinulang (a machete dance)
accompanied the couple out of the church. Arriving at the house, the couple
proceeds straight to the family altar to ensure future prosperity; a feast follows.
The marriage is not consummated until the second night at the groom's parents'
house; on the third day, the couple returns to the bride's parents' house to live.
• When a person is dying, relatives say prayers for the deliverance of his or her
soul and to ward off evil spirits (men wave machetes in the yard). The body is
washed with water mixed with ginger or bark juice and is laid out in the house
next to an improvised altar and a tin can in which mourners put contributions.
The deceased's family refrains from making excessive noise, fighting, combing
their hair, and bathing until three days after the burial. Only unmarried men may
take the body out of the house; water is thrown on the threshold so that another
death will not follow. The entire funeral procession must return to the house of
the deceased and wash their hands and feet.
• Nine days of prayer follow the burial; as many as nine more days may be added,
depending on the family's wealth (as all attending must be served food and
drink). At a midnight ceremony on the ninth night, all family members must be
awake to bid farewell to the spirit of the deceased. On the death anniversary,
nine days of prayer again take place.
FAMILY LIFE
• Hiligaynon family structure conforms to the general Filipino pattern. In wealthier
families, the Spanish terms papa and mama, or even the English mommy and
daddy, are preferred over the native tatay and nanay. Educated people may
address their spouses with such English expressions as honey or darling (often
shortened to "ling") rather than the native nonoy (for the husband) or neneng (for
the wife). Uncles and aunts are addressed as "tay + [name]" (Papa + [name])
and "nay + [name]" (Mama + [name]), respectively.
• Hiligaynon share the general Filipino behavioral values such as hiya ( huya in
the Hiligaynon language). Violating norms (such as insulting spiritual mediums)
will earn gaba, supernatural punishment. Those who humiliate others will suffer
the same amount of humiliation in turn, called ulin .
CLOTHING
• For fieldwork, men wear worn-out short pants and often go shirtless. On formal
occasions, however, they wear long pants, shirts, and shoes (otherwise they go
barefoot).
• Married women wear either a bestida (dress) or a patadyong (tube skirt) with a
blouse. Traditional weaving is nearly extinct, but was a thriving industry before
the nineteenth-century import of British manufactured cloth.
For pangalap (magical protection), many older men wear tattoos (a crucifix,
initials, or female figures). At the time of the Spanish arrival, all the people living
in the Visayan region wore elaborate tattoos, earning them the
name Pintados, "the painted ones," from their conquerors.
 FOOD
• The eating pattern is either three meals a day or two meals (at 10:00–
11:00 AM and 4:00–5:00 PM ). Between-meal snacks consist of rice cakes,
boiled roots, or bananas. Family members eat at their own convenience but are
encouraged to eat together. Ordinarily, people eat with their hands while sitting
on the floor; silverware and tables are reserved for the use of guests. Men do not
eat breakfast unless, as a gesture of hospitality, they are joining visitors who are
being served breakfast.
• Around 6:00 PM , men gather for tuba (palm wine) drinking sessions in the tree
groves between houses (some women may also join them).
• The Western Visayas region is dominated by two very different types of
agriculture: rice cultivation by small holders, and sugar cultivation in large
plantations. Swidden (shifting-cultivation) farming is still practiced in the
highlands.
• Tobacco has become increasingly important. Other crops grown include maize
(corn), bananas, coconuts, sweet potato, cassava, singkamas (similar to turnips),
squash, tomatoes, beans, and red peppers. Fishing is an alternative means of
livelihood. Some Hiligaynon engage in various forms of petty trade: libod, making
the rounds of one's village, selling a product; pahumay, selling from one's
house; tinda, selling at fiestas and other local events; and tiyanggi, operating a
small variety store ( sari-sari in Tagalog-Pilipino).
SPORTS
• Tumbang patis, popular with both boys and girls, involves two or more children
throwing rocks at a tin can while someone who is "it" watches the can, putting it
back in place when hit; if a player is caught retrieving the stone he or she has
thrown, he or she becomes "it." Other popular games include: "gunfighting" with
bamboo popguns; beetle-and spider-fighting; and huyup-huyup, blowing
rubber bands out of a circle for bets. Young children catch dragonflies, dig holes
in the ground, pile sticks, measure sand with bottle caps, and pull empty coconut
shells or sardine cans on strings.
CRAFTS
• Hiligaynon practice weaving baskets, place mats, and textiles.