Elderly Beliefs 
 
 
 

Here are Filipino elderly beliefs that are believed by our ancestors passed on 
from generation to generation. These are divided according to the different 
regional groups in the Philippines.  
 
Cebuano 
Charms:  
- Fisherfolk and hunters of Cebu uses the eyes of wildcats as charms to enable 
them to have an abundant catch.  
- Bones of a black cat are made in a special arrangement as a talisman. 

Beliefs:  
- The Cebuanos believe that other animals also serve as portents of good or bad 
omens. 
- Cats are often regarded as possessing special powers. Their eyesight enables 
them to see evil spirits. The arrival of rain is announced when a cat gets wet 
during a drought. On the other hand, bad weather is expected when a cat 
stretches itself in the morning.
- Dogs become more ferocious if fed with wasps' nests, and see evil spirits like 
the tumao/tamawo when they bark continuously during a new moon. To scare away 
the aswang, cow/carabao horns or tortoiseshells are thrown into red-hot coals. 
- When the dahon-dahon (praying mantis) enters a house, it foretells misfortune 
for the occupants. 

Gaddang 
The Gaddang believe in two kinds of illness: the sickness caused by evil spirits 
and the hurt or injury suffered in accidents such as those caused by falling, 
muscle sprains and insect bites. The Gaddang also specifically identify 
blindness, insanity, birth defects, skin diseases, goiter, deafness and malaria 
as other illnesses outside the first two classifications. Most "hurts" are 
attributed to natural causes, i.e., it is "natural" for an insect to bite or for 
a person to accidentally cut his/her leg with a knife. 

Supernatural beings: 
However, illness could also be caused by evil spirits, like the bingil, 
physically distorted humanlike ghouls with very large eyes that reflect light 
and glow in the dark, contact with which causes illness and even death in two 
days; aran, a mistlike spirit, floating in the forest, which sneaks into the 
village at night and possesses a sleeping person, who will then begin to act 
insanely and die sooner or later; angakokang, known only by its distinctive 
sound like that of a whining dog, which when heard by a person will result in 
sickness or death; aled, transubstantial spirits normally invisible, but which 
have the power to metamorphose themselves into human, animal (pig, bird) and 
non-human shapes (rocks, trees) and whose touch causes dizziness and general 
weakness and death within a few days; and karangat, ghouls who, like the aled, 
can change shape at will, are unusually aggressive and tricky, lurk about 
villages bringing sickness, insanity and death and must occasionally kill to 
secure their food, consisting of human corpses. With the evil spirits roaming 
around, the Gaddang became cautious about the world in which they live. The 
earth world is an uncertain world. Omens, taboos, and malevolent spirits lead 
the Gaddang to view the world as particularly hostile. The Gaddang must then 
seek to establish a harmonious relationship between humans and the other natural 
and supernatural beings in the world. But few Gaddang have the ability to 
successfully interact with supernatural forces, requiring mediums to broker 
between the natural and supernatural. Male and female mediums, mengal, mabayan 
and makamong - perform anitu rites and other rituals related to planting, 
harvesting, death, warfare, sickness and misfortune. 

Anitu to the Gaddang does not refer to an ancestral spirit, as it commonly does 
in northern Luzon, but a "belief in a supernatural power." It is also understood 
by the Gaddang as that which followed by all. First, it has a power, force, or 
concept through which Nanolay is addressed. No Gaddang can say "I beg to 
Nanolay," but rather, "I beg to anitu." Anitu can only be viewed as benevolent. 
It is correct to say narakat a anitu (bad anitu). Second, anitu also refers to 
seven rites of passage which all Gaddang undergo.