By Penelope A. Domogo, MD
When we hear the word “ritual”, the first thing that comes to many minds is its purpose. For what? For us Igorots, I would say that what come to our minds would be images of traditional rituals. The images will depend on your experience. Is it for marriage blessing & celebration as in “dawak” or “babayas? “Kidlos & gobbao” for the newly-delivered mother & her baby? Is it for cleansing and healing (“daw-es”)? Requiem? For us Kankanaeys, the object or symbol most commonly used in our rituals is “meat” and our rituals usually end with a fellowship meal, much like an agape meal. Nothing beats eating as the finale of any ritual. And because these rituals are special, we serve something out of the ordinary and in our indigenous culture, that special thing is meat, not pechay. Why meat? Meat is definitely difficult to produce- It takes years to raise a pig naturally & requires greater care than pechay. People will go home early in the afternoon to ensure their “taraken” (understood as a pig/s) eats. So in our traditional rituals, we almost always butcher an animal (chicken, pig or dog) or use “etag” (smoked salted pork).
A ritual is a set of actions or gestures we, humans, do repeatedly, whether it is daily, monthly, on occasion, etc., and using objects like plants, water, light, soil. It’s a routine like what we discussed last issue. Many rituals include prayers to the divine thus they are generally solemn and meditative. Many use various literary forms like chants, songs, sagas, poems. The Christian mass which originated from the west uses these, too. Yes, the mass in church or wherever it is held, is a ritual.
Rituals are part of life. They serve a lot of functions – as acts of reverence/worship, cleansing and healing, debriefing, thanksgiving, a form of communication (prayers, intercessions, lessons). Many are rites of passage through vital events in our life – birth, adolescence, marriage, building a house, disease/epidemics, death. In our Igorot agricultural calendar, we have rituals to mark the end and start of harvest and planting seasons and other vital agricultural events. Rituals keep us sane, secure and grounded. Rituals provide solace, relief and affirmation. But most importantly, they provide order, harmony and predictability to our lives. Order, harmony and predictability are crucial to our sanity.
Rituals could be simple or elaborate, with a dress code and complete with paraphernalia like gongs or incense. Actually, we do a lot of rituals – in our individual lives, in our family, organizations like the church, and communities. I know some people whose morning ritual includes a prayer of thanks. For some it is followed by a cup of coffee. For many it is going to the comfort room (that’s why it is so called). They won’t be able to take off the day without these rituals. In Bontoc, after the ritual in church (the misa), some parishioners would go to the market for their coffee and pancake combo. That’s part of their morning ritual.
Rituals are also cleansing and healing rituals. In the “ili”, after some traumatic experience, our elders perform the “daw-es” for the person involved or the dap-ay involved. This ritual is a cleansing and healing ritual. In western psychology, this is akin to defriefing. See how caring our indigenous society is. During the downswings in my life, I found profound solace and strength in the early morning mass in All Saints Cathedral in Bontoc, Mountain Province. Just the act of going to church, sitting and kneeling, saying familiar prayers, singing familiar hymns, listening to the priest say “The Lord be with you” were immensely comforting and affirming. The predictability of the service provided comfort, meaning I knew that when I go to church I would know what to do, almost automatically. There is comfort in the familiar. It is understandable, then, if people feel agitated when there are changes in the ritual whether in its sequence or content. This could throw one off balance. Thus I could feel the anxiety and stress of many of us whose routines were suddenly disrupted because of covid quarantine. I could feel the distress of those who suddenly lost their jobs or their means of livelihood because of covid. I could feel the stress on people who can’t go to church or to their friends because of lockdown. How about the anxiety and stress of students and parents and teachers alike on even just the thought of online schooling?
The good news is that people, wherever they are, will carry on traditions including rituals and eventually adapting to the new normal. I pray that we will hang on to our traditions by not forgetting our rituals and these will tide us through these challenging times.
Rituals are traditions, developed over time, for survival. They connect the past and the present and thus are crucial for identity. Identity is essential for survival. Rituals also connect families, tribes and nations. Look at how Igorots all over the globe connect with each other through the ritual of the canao, rediscovering their roots and taking pride in their rich Igorot heritage and formally organizing a global village, the Igorot Global Organization. Our indigenous rituals require the presence of at least one elder, also family members or clan members depending on the ritual. Through these rituals, the bonds between families & relatives are strengthened and the role of elders (leaders) are affirmed. Strong families and clans overseen by a council of elders (meaning wise people) make strong communities. Strong communities ensure survival of their people. Strong communities make a strong region and a strong nation.
Unfortunately, there has been a disconnect intergenerationally among us, indigenous peoples. Many young people now, even in our own Philippine shores, don’t see the point of doing these traditional Igorot rituals. “Is-isyanggay.” Even some older citizens label them as “pagan”, “primitive”, “ad kasin sa”. But they would easily copy foreign rituals- to some brown people, “west is still best”. Many elders now don’t know how to perform the rituals perhaps because they were not taught or don’t have the interest to learn them. When we talked with the elders who are still in the know, they sadly say the young are not interested in learning from them. The elders themselves, have been disenfranchised. No wonder our indigenous systems which include the values, knowledge and practices, are disintegrating. The bonds between families, relatives and communities are weakened. Kanya-kanya na. Order and harmony are at risk. Of course, we know that it is easy to break one stick and difficult to break a bundle. Our Igorot language is endangered. But praise God, the Alpha and Omega, the same loving God of the past, the present and the future, we still have these rich rituals in our midst, evolving and adapting to the changes in society. We just need to revalue and reclaim them.***
“Lord and Light of every age, by thy same sure counsel led,
Heirs of their great heritage in their footsteps will we tread.” Hymn 582 (1940)
