It’s Halloween, a holiday with roots in Samhain (pronounced sow-won), the Celtic New Year, a time when it is believed that the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead are especially thin, allowing the spirits of the deceased to roam our earthly plane. Samhain also celebrates the end of the harvest season and the arrival of winter.

In keeping with the supernatural spirit of the season, I’d like to talk about something I discovered just this week. We all know that certain foods have the ability to repel supernatural creatures. Garlic and salt are used to repel a variety of creatures, including “aswang”; and babies and toddlers are made to wear a red pouch with fresh ginger inside it to ward off “bati,” or the evil eye.

When I was in Kalinga a couple of months ago, I was made to smell guyabano leaves to stop a headache that my host suspected was caused by a resident spirit taking interest in me. This, along with another local remedy of burning some of the afflicted person’s hair and making them smell the ashes, helped cure me of my malaise.

Now I have something new to add to my food-based arsenal against the supernatural, and that’s citrus. I learned this from Karl Gaverza, author, researcher, and founder of “Philippine Spirits,” a book series and website dedicated to promulgating the different mythologies from the Philippine archipelago.

“I was going through my resources and I found a story from Damiana Eugenio’s Philippine Folk Literature Series: The Myths and Maximo Ramos’ Creatures of ‘ Philippine Lower Mythology’ and found that in different parts of the Philippines there is a tradition of citrus fruits being a ward or even a talisman against certain harmful spirits,” he said.

He listed three citrus fruits used locally to ward of supernatural creatures:

Biasong (Citrus micrantha). In Bohol, it was believed that having biasong on one’s person, “will weigh down the aswang if it tries to fly off with their victim,” Gaverza said. “As far as the source in Damiana Eugenio’s Philippine Folk Literature series says, this was still believed in by 1959.”

Pomelo (Citrus maxima). “In Surigao, there is a belief that suha keeps the wakwak (an aswang-like creature) at a safe distance,” Gaverza said. “The wakwak’s prey is pregnant women and the citrus fruit is commonly placed over the roof of a woman that is set to deliver their baby. Using a piece of sharpened bamboo to stab the wakwak is one way of killing it. As of the 1970s, this is still believed in some parts of Surigao.”

Citrus fruits. In Eastern Visayas, citrus fruits can take away the ability of a local liver-eating “aswang” called “aswang na lupad” or “aswang na lipad” (flying aswang) to fly. “The mere presence of these fruits is said to hamper that ability,” Gaverza said. “The manananggal, a creature from Bicol and the Visayas that separates from the waist like a manananggal but does not have wings, are scared of citrus fruits since the fruits stop their ability to float. This is still believed in as an urban legend in some areas until the present day.”

Calamansi (Citrus x microcarpa). The ubiquitous calamansi isn’t just a favorite for use in juices and dipping sauces, it is believed to have esoteric uses as well. “In a Tagalog story from 1975 (reprinted in Eugenio’s book), there was a family of aswang that tried to trick a teniente into eating human flesh (to turn him into an aswang as well) [by using an] illusion that turns the flesh into everyday food. (Like fingers into pork in sinigang). Squeezing calamansi on the food dispelled the illusion. The teniente brought the family to the nearby town to be investigated.”

Gaverza added that based on his research, the citrus had to be fresh. “You keep them on your person and when they attack you they will recoil in pain or disgust,” he explained. “If for example, an aswang tries to fly away with you and you have kalamansi in your pocket, it will not able to move you at all.”

There's a theory that garlic acquired its supernatural reputation because of its antibacterial properties during a time when people attributed many illnesses to supernatural forces. Perhaps citrus fruits, which are high in vitamins and also have antibacterial properties, acquired theirs in the same way. When asked if this was so, Gaverza said, “I can only hypothesize, but I think the property of citrus fruits being sour and tart is a hindrance to flying creatures, most especially some variants of the aswang legend.”

Citrus fruits aren’t just good sources of vitamin C, they’re also strong (and tasty) repellents against some creatures of the supernatural. As Gaverza says, “If you find yourself alone on a dark night, it would be good if you had a calamansi in your pocket. So carry one around. You never know if you’ll need it.”