The bridge between the living and the dead
Ritual offerings to appease the spirits
The first time I witnessed a major atang ritual was when I was project director of the rehabilitation of the tallest lighthouse in the Philippines, Cape Bojeador Lighthouse in Burgos, Ilocos Norte.
We were opening the lighthouse to the public after months of construction work and, upon arriving on site, I couldn’t help but notice this diminutive bent-over figure, her face laden with deep folds, much like those seen on ancient tree trunks, her skin as brown as Serg’s chocolate, shuffling around laying out offerings as part of the day’s ceremony. She did have an arresting presence. I was informed she was the mangluwalo, who would perform the atang or appeasement ceremony.
According to former National Museum director Dr. Jesus Peralta, Ilocanos believe “in the existence of kaibaan or ansisit, tiny unseen spirits” that are all around us. They can be friendly and harmful (if inadvertently harmed). It can also be spirits of the dead. When this happens a mangangatang, whom the Ilocanos also refer to as mangluwalo or nagdadasal, is called to appease the spirits, as well as ask to for their blessings and protection.
For the opening of the lighthouse, we were to appease the spirits who might have been bothered by months of construction in the area. I have seen multiple daily sacrifices in pretty little woven containers decorated with dainty little flowers in Bali, Indonesia but these did not prepare me for the blood-letting of a squealing pig that had to be carried dying and bleeding around the entire structure and property. Worse, they had to keep poking the pig with a blunt machete since the blood kept coagulating, filling the air with the pig’s echoing screams even more. A small consolation was the thought that a hundred years or so earlier, we could have been dealing with human sacrifice. On archaeological digs it has been a practice to perform atangs. But I have never seen anything more than a chicken being sacrificed.
Today, blood-letting rituals still exist in the country. They are derivative of course of the older, more gruesome version of human sacrifice, which was eradicated with the arrival of the Spanish and then “gentrified” into offerings of domesticated animals and food.
On Nov. 1, All Saint’s Day, people will be heading to the resting places of their dearly departed, to whom they will be performing their own offerings. These ritual offerings, which the Ilocanos call atang and the Tagalogs and the Cebuanos call alay or halad respectively, are seen as a communion between the living and the dead. And the dead are said to have been unleashed to walk among the living the day before, on Oct. 31—Halloween or All Hallows’ Eve to mark the start of the three-day celebration of autumn: Halloween, All Soul’s Day, and All Saint’s Day. There’s Halloween for the Christian world and there’s the ghost month for the Chinese. I wonder who tells the dead to go back?
According to professor emeritus of Theology at the University of Notre Dame Lawrence Cunningham, “There is no doctrinal or moral practice with respect to ghost or apparitions; no canon in ecumenical councils or cannon law that addresses this.” But he adds, “God may, and sometimes does, permit a departed soul to appear in some visible form to people on earth… their purpose may be to teach, or warn, or request some favor for the living.”
I’d been working in an attic for a few days, organizing and sorting stuff in a very old home, when a most extraordinary experience occurred. It was the end of the day. I was taking a video of the day’s work when I noticed a young man’s face and part of his chest peeking through some green dresses hung on a rack (Yup. I color coded the clothes found in the attic). I did a double then triple take but I could only see the man’s upper half. Through my lens, he had black hair, black rounded eyebrows, and black eyes on a very luminescent face. I yelped and ran to my companion, trying to compose myself. I did manage to finish taking the video, but I needed to take some still shots. About two-thirds of the way, though, I realized I was alone. My driver and my companion had gone down without me, which I found strange. So I quickly finished, trying not to think about what I just saw minutes before, and hurried down. When I met up with my group, I asked why they had gone ahead knowing I was still rattled by what I had just experienced. The driver, also looking unnerved, explained that he went down because he saw a lady (whom he presumed was me) going down the spiral staircase so they rushed to catch up. I was the only female working on the floors.
As an archaeologist, who specializes in burial pottery, and even as a Catholic, acknowledging the cosmos and beyond, the pursuit of understanding the intangibles of this and other worlds and dimensions is almost second nature to me. I messaged a colleague about my experience. He asked if I was able to take a photo. I wasn’t sure if I pressed the camera button and, since it was nearing midnight, I wasn’t inclined to check. But I did have the video, which I sent to him. A few minutes passed before I received the message from my colleague, accompanied by a screenshot from the video, “Ganyan ba?”
When you enter a space you bring your energy to it and understandably, the spirits that reside there, especially those abandoned for so long, can be displeased by the intrusion.
A day after the incident, the mangluwalo or nagdadasal was sent from Ilocos to Manila. By Sunday we held the atang. Intuitively it makes sense to me that when you enter a space you bring your energy to it and understandably, the spirits that reside there, especially those abandoned for so long, can be displeased by the intrusion. As my mentor Dr. Victor Paz succinctly put it, what I saw and felt was real within my context and that of the staff present. Collectively we reinforced the notion of the supernatural. So, to perform an atang is just fitting for the peace of mind of all. I have been kicking myself for not performing the atang before this project, but as they say better late than never.
The offerings were laid on a white table cover in front of the altar. This took place around 6 p.m. There was another ritual before this. We had to go to each and every room of the house and the entire garden and structures throwing a mixture of uncooked rice and salt.
There are many types of appeasement rituals. In this case, a ritual to remember the dead was performed.
For further reading, here are a few links I found helpful:
Death and Food Offering: The Ilocano “Atang” Ritual from a Contextual Theology
Paranormal activity: Do Catholics believe in ghosts?
