Day 1 – Aswang
Depending where in the Philippines you are, ‘Aswang’ can mean many different things.
They can be:
Bloodsucking vampires or cannibals – In some beliefs such as for the Karay-a in Panay Bukidnon, ‘Aswang’ are warriors who have eaten human flesh.
Self-segmenters – In some parts of Eastern Visayas, Quezon Province and other areas ‘Manananggal’ and ‘Aswang’ are synonymous. ‘Manananggal’ refer to creatures that can split in half and fly, usually eating the innards of their victims.
Shapeshifters – Some ‘Aswang’ can turn into dogs, cats, black pigs, birds.
Witches – They can cause illness to people from afar as well as other magic like turning corpses into other objects.
Corpse Eaters – Some descriptions have ‘Aswang’ as exclusively eaters of dead bodies.
As well as any combination of those above!
Day 2 – Kapitangan
A Kapampangan Goddess.
She is pátulúnan (the particular god venerated for a particular aspect or locality) and Patron of Maglilingu (Assassins), Tiktik (Spies), Mapanaku (Thieves), Mandurukot (Kidnappers) and Ustwang (Arsonists / Sowers of Discord ). Has the form of the night heron (Also called tiktik) it is a greyish blue bird.
Kapampangans have a history of warfare among themselves as well as other groups. They had small kingdoms called Balen and the fights would be Blood Feuds, Clan warfare, territorial disputes etc. This constant warfare created the need for different kinds of subterfuge. (see what she is patron of) To the Westerners, the battles sound like a fight for teritory but they were mostly about water/irrigation rights, forest rights, fishing rights, hunting rights, to avenge an insult, to combat a plague, rights to succession, to punish enemy witches or who put curses, etc.
Day 3 – Betaku
A T’boli creature.
Betaku is a witch with long nails – during nights babies are taken by this witch. The Betaku will curse babies. It also Kills babies. There are betaku dances. It is best to have to have a kumbing in your house if the mother sleeps the baby is taken and killed. Playing the Kumbing scares her off.
Day 4 – Fagad
A Tiruray creature.
A spirit/ sorcerer that eats the dead in imitation of the bubol. When a Tiruray dies they put a mirror on top of the head so that the face of the dead is mirrored. When the fagad comes they run away because they think the body has two faces.
Day 5 – Angngalo
An Ilocano god.
Angalo, son of the god of building, lived shortly after the creation of the world. From across the sea in a lofty cave in the Ilocano mountain, a maiden named Sipnget, goddess of darkness found Angalo.
She was tired of her kingdom of darkness and asked him to build a mansion of pure white.
He did not know of anything else that was white except salt and asked Asin, the ruler of the kingdom of salt for help. Millions of humans were employed in the making and transporting the salt blocks.
The ocean was disturbed from her slumber by this and sent a big wave to demolish the edifice. Which crumbled and dissolved in the water.
Day – 6 Pasatsat
A creature from Pangasinan.
A ghost of a dead person who died in a tragic way, especially those who died in Japanese Era (World War II). This kind of ghost usually shows to passersby in a solitary paths in the forest or even in cities. In order for the ghost to stop haunting, someone should stab the coffin or the reed mat where the body of this ghost was buried. It will show no sign of the body but a putrid flesh can be smelled.
Day 7 – Melu
The creator god of the Bagobo people. Used the leavings of his body skin, which he constantly scrubbed off in order to make the earth. Made the figures of humans, but (to avoid an argument) allowed Fun Tao Tana (His brother) to put the noses on his creation. Because of this, when the rains came, the first people almost drowned because water from their heads entered their nostrils. Melu descended from the sky and reset the noses.
Day 8 – Panyata
From Samal.
A ghost of the deceased. The family members of the deceased need to watch over the grave for several days and nights. If the grave is left unwatched the Imams and some others will spread the news that the dead man’s ghost has escaped and runs through the hills, terrorizing passersby. They call the ghost panyata and as long as the grave is not guarded, they will not stop spreading the news.
Day 9 – Dagau
A Manobo Goddess.
When human blood is spilled upon the face of the earth she makes the python wrap itself around the pillars of the earth to shake it. When she is angered she diminishes the supply of rice, either by cursing the soil or taking it from a granary
Day 10 – The Hermitanyo of Mayon
Is visible only during the eruption of Mt. Mayon. He looks at the devastation sadly, then disappears again. Takes care of the plants around Mt. Mayon.
Day 11 – The Goddess of Love
A goddess from Negros. Had a pet deer that was killed by a hunter, the hunter then shot the goddess when she pleaded not to take the deer away. Her body was then transformed into a Sac-sac (sago palm) tree and on the side of the tree sprang a spring. The tree is identified with the body of the goddess and the spring, her blood.
Day 12- The Pugot of Tablang
A big, black man with hair all over his body. Posseses great strength and the ability to disappear at will. Was killed by a man named Cubano after a long fight on a moonless night. The pugot was killed with multiple blows by a bamboo sword and fell into the river.
Day 13 – Burigadang Pada Sinaklang Bulawan
From Panay.
She is a goddess of greed to whom people pray when they want to get rich.
Day 14 – Tibsukan
From Panay
The tibsukan look like small pigs with long snouts. Like the lolid they are also pets of the engkantu. Once commanded by their master, they can bore holes from underneath the house causing illness to a member of the household. A house should not be constructed in a place where there are tibsukan.
Day 15 – Kakading
From the Kankana-ey people.
Kind spirits that protect people from typoohns, epidemics and other forms of human suffering. Can be invoked for protection. They can take human form.
Day 16 – Bonggo
From Bicol.
Vengeful spirits with fire-spitting eyes. Its victims are mostly women, this is because it is constantly searching for its wife, the aswang, that deserted it.
Day 17 – Don Antoy
From Negros.
A man with a mustache. The king of the haunted places of Siaton. Causes mischief in the area of Panliguiran hill. Stalled the construction of the Siaton river bridge because it was too low and his ghose ship would destroy its framework. When the bridge was raised the mysterious accidents plaguing the construction stopped.
Day 18 – The Three Hooded Monks
Demons appeared before a sick man asking him why he tried to be a christian when it was already too late. The demons attacked him but he was saved by the three hooded monks who promptly took him to hell for his sinful life.
Day 19 – Siyam-siyam
From Iloilo.
In mid to late 19th century Iloilo, travelers on horseback or carriage told of encountering a restless spirit at night. The spirit at first appeared as a normal human and asked to hitch a ride. On the way it would talk casually and confess of its nine sins that it committed nine times. Then the hitchhiker will turn into a skeleton in tatters and ask for the nearest church and disappear while the travelers screamed their heads off. In one story, Siyam-Siyam finally found peace when he encountered a friar.
Day 20 – Binagoonan
From the Pinatubo Ayta.
A big man, like an american with his body glimmering on fire. An evil spirit of giant proportions. Was seen by a man named Pan Basilio. Eats people. Disguiseed itself as a patianak spirit and possessed Pan Basilio. Caused great sickness and misfortune.
Day 21 – Panolay
From the Bais Forest Preserve Negitos.
An evil spirit that harms every Negrito. It is believed insanity is caused by the panolay when it possesses a human mind and body.
Day 22 – Tambuq
From Palawan.
There were originally seven moons and seven suns, Tambuq, the giant, submerged the suns and moons in the sea and so cooled the air.
Day 23 – Taliyakud
When a Tagbanwa dies his soul enters a cave and follows a road leading to the bowels of the underworld. At the first level he meets Taliyakud, chief deity of the underworld, who tends a fire between two tree trunks. He questions the soul whether it was good or bad during life. Lying is impossible because a louse on the soul – his conscience – answers for him. If the soul was bad then he is pitched into the fire and completely burned. If he was good he is allowed to pass on to a happy place where game and good crops abound. – There is a clear muslim influence here (the notion of eternal reward and punishment) the sultan of Sulu was recognized overlord of the Tagbanwas though they injected whimsy in the form of a louse.
Day 24 – Burikay/Buriay
From the Isneg people.
The Isneg ogre, devoured men, too, perhaps by first opening them up, as can be deduced from three Isneg folk songs
Day 25 – Amburukay
A large being. A muwa / bayi-bayi. Large and Hairy. Wears a tapis (barrel skirt). Has golden pubic hair. Lives in a cave with her brother Makabagting. Was enamored with the children Makabagting got from Datu Paiburong (so happy she had children to take care of) and kept them in a golden towerette inside their cave in the forest.
Day 26 – Darago
A demon of the Bagobos. The name daragó means spiller of blood. Sometimes this creature is called Da-dagó, du-dagó, or mudugó. The Bagobos also call the Mandarangan, Daragó as well. It is assumed that Daragó is a title that the Bagobos give, not only to the Mandarangan, but also to other demons and malignant spirits.
Day 27 – Bannog
Most Philippine giants appear to have human shape, although one, the bannog of Northern Luzon, was in the form of a huge bird. The bannog which features in the Tingguian tale “Sogsogot” was large enough to swoop down on a hunter, clutch him in its talons, and carry him to its nest on top of a large tree. The bannog in an Isneg tale, “The Negrito and the Birds,” flew off with both the hunter and the hunter’s catch, a wild boar. The young of the bannog were so large that a hunter rode out of the nest on one of them as it fluttered down in its first flight.
Day 28 – Kokok
From the Subanen people.
Has a pointed head. They teach medicine and other remedies for fever, cough and stomachaches. Loves to laugh, if a kokok laughs its lips move up to its eyes. They are usually kind and assist babaylan. There are some kokok that eat children.
Day 29 – Patag’aes
Keeps track over man’s affairs immediately after marriage. Keeps track of pregnancy. Waits until midnight then enters the house to have a conversation with the infant. If Patag’aes discovers anyone eavesdropinng on their conversation, he chokes the child to death. The conversation is on how long the child wants to live and how the child will eventually die. The child gets to choose. After the child has chosen, Patag’aes takes out his measuring stick and computes the child’s life span, then he departs.
Day 30 – Ebwa
From Abra
They are attracted to the dead and even lie in wait for the dying. It is believed that they once mingled with himans, but due to a thoughtless act of a human mourner during a funeral, the ebwa became addicted to human flesh.
During a wake ebwas can work in pairs or groups to steal the corpse. They keep away if people stay awake to watch over the dead. Placing a constant light near the corpse, laying a piece of iron on the grave or burning holes on each garment worn by the corpse are ways to safeguard the corpse from the ebwa.
After nine consecutive days and nights without success the ebwas lose interest in the corpse and search for a new one.
Day 31 – Bakunawa
The Bakunawa is a serpent or dragon that is believed to eat the sun or moon during an eclipse. It is kept at bay by loud noise and music. It seeks to possess all 7 moons by swallowing them. The Bakunawa already swallowed 6 moons, but was stopped by the god Bathala from eating the last one.
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Mike Pangilinan interviewed 2025
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