Witches, Ghouls and Jesus Christ

In my last post I briefly touched on the superstitions of a 92% Catholic country.

I could perhaps be more critical of the local population and observe people here know more about the rituals of Catholicism than the actual religion itself but I will leave that judgement for another day.

But in the meantime consider this:

An Aswang (or Asuwang) is a mythical creature in Filipino folklore. The aswang is the most feared of supernatural creatures on the Philippines and is the subject of a wide variety of myths and stories, the details of which often vary greatly. Spanish colonizers noted that the Aswang was the most feared among the mythical creatures of the Philippines, even in the 16th century.

The most popular original definition however, is that it is a ghoul, an eater of the dead. After consumption, the ghoul replaces the cadaver with banana trunks.

Since the stories recount aswang eating unborn children, pregnancy is a time of great fear for superstitious Filipinos.

Typically, an aswang is revealed by using a bottle of a special oil extracted from boiled and decanted coconut meat and mixed with certain plant stems upon which special prayers being said. When an aswang comes near or roams around the house at night, the oil is said to boil (or froth into bubbles) and continue boiling until the aswang departs.