Ritual Life of the Visayans

The Visayans make up a quarter of the Philippine people. The term Visayan comes from people who live around the islands surround the Visayan Sea. Some islands where the Visayans live are: Luzon, Mindanao, and Manila. Also a lot of Visayans have migrated to other parts of the Philippines. Visayans speak one of three languages. The three different languages are: Cebuano, Panayan or Samaran. These languages are from the Malayo-Polynesian family.

The majority of Visayans are Roman Catholic but some belong to other religions with the denomination. They make up a large part of the Christian population. The Visayans are known for their religious festivals. Some festivals they celebrate are: Ati-atihan, Sinulog, Dinagyang, Sandugo and the MassKara. A huge part of the Visayan people’s life is their ritual life.

The Visayans have a bigger religious life than we do in the United States. The Roman Catholic religion helps them focus on the Kinship system. The Visayans also have a nuclear family, which influences them to become more involved in religion. Unlike our culture, in the Visayan culture, the Roman Catholic faith plays a central role. In the United States, religion does not play such a central role in culture. Their religion influences their rituals, festivals, and celebrations.

One of the rituals the Visayan people practice is rice ritual. The name of their rice ritual is a Christianized ritual. They pray to God and hope for the rice to have the right characteristics. It gives the farmers comfort knowing the rice will grow successfully since God is in control. Arens states: “In the Christianized ritual the invocations are directed to God and the amulets or charms used now are the symbolic expression of a prayer to ...

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...). The children are afraid of the asuang spirits. Both the tamawos and the asuang spirits can take any form, whether its human or animal form.

The Visayan people have many different rituals that their culture practices. These rituals are what make the Visayans culture unique from others. Without rituals, human development would suffer in this culture. The structure of the Visayans culture is partly made up of their rituals. Their ritual life is the central focus of their culture.

Works Cited

Arens, Richard. "The rice ritual in the east visayan islands, philippines." Folklore studies. 16. (1957): 268-90.Print.

Madigan, Francis. "The harvest ritual in north central mindanao." Sociological analysis. 25.4 (1964): 231-37.Print.

Maxfield, Berton. Millington, W. "Philippine (visayan) superstitions." The journal of american folklore. 19.74 (1906): 205-11.Print