About 2 years ago, when I was still in college, I had this project to be conducted on the slum areas of cities outside the national capital region. My first stop was in Naga City in the province of Camarines Sur in the Philippines. I am supposed to stay there for a week and witness and make a documentary of my stay. The school looked for a family where I would stay and I have to live with them the way they live their lives, so I was the one to do the adjustments. Once, I woke up in the middle of the night, around 2am, because of the shrieking sound and loud noise. Its like there are people, in choir. I went outside to check what's happening.
I saw a big bonfire where the village people gathered around it. There are about 5-7 people standing on the background of the bonfire while singing. They are composed of male residents, and they are old. Out of curiousness, I asked my brother [i called the boy I am living with as a brother] whats going on. He said its a ritual done once every month.
This ritual event is also the gathering of the members of the village who are suffering form diseases. This is their healing session. They dance and sing the diseases out. They asked the people who are sick to line in front of the bonfire, undressed them and keep them lying on the earth.
The oldest member of the village then will have to examine each of the patient, and put the chewed guava leaves in the forehead of every patient. They believed this practice will kill the bad spirits that is giving the person a diseases. By the way, they believed that every kind of disease in this world is caused by an outside force, a bad force, and therefore the best kind of healing according to them is praying intensively to the mighty creator, who ever they believed the mighty creator is.
I find this very interesting as it showcased the exotic way of healing from the ancient beliefs of the early settlers of the country. And to think that this kind of practices still exist in Naga City, which is considered as the cradle of faith in the Philippines, is just classic. And to have documented this event is just priceless.
