Niños Inocentes and Filipino Mischief

Just when Carmina and Patch thought they’ve discovered everything they could about Filipino Christmas traditions, they come across Niños Inocentes. And as is true for every other present-day tradition, they found its indigenous roots and the Filipino penchant for simultaneous resistance and humor. Happy Holidays to FilTrip listeners! 

Learn more: Beware Ninos Inocentes Day, What is the Feast of the Holy Innocents?, Spooky Christmas Culture, Yawa Yawa Mask of Terror, Pisting Yawa: The Devil who was once a Bisayan Deity, Underneath the Yawa-Yawa Mask, Feast of the Holy Innocents, Día de los Inocentes - Mexico’s Answer to April Fools, Why ‘devils’ take centerstage in Aklan villages during Christmas, and Historia de las islas e indios de Bisayas. 

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Transcript

Welcome to FilTrip, a podcast where we explore everything fun, weird, and in between about the Philippines. 

Hi, Patch.

Hi, Carmina. I'm very excited about this episode because, first of all, Merry Christmas to all.

Happy Holidays.

I'm excited about this because I've learned something new because in the past, we explored the many Christmas traditions, and I thought I could not learn anything new anymore. But in fact, in the Philippines, on December 28, we do celebrate the Niños Inocentes, which is supposed to be a very solemn holiday.

But of course, we always put a twist on things.

We do always put a twist on things, right? So Niños Inocentes commemorates, sadly, the massacre of the infant.

What? We just said it was solemn, and then we put a twist on it, and it's about the massacre

As usual, there's always a roller coaster of emotions when you're delving into Philippine culture and traditions, right? But so is the massacre of boys, two years old and under, in Bethlehem, as ordered by King Herod after the birth of Jesus, because of the prophecy that a new king threatened Herod's throne. So this is the historical context of where this tradition comes from.

Yeah, the Christian context.

Correct.

And if people think that that's a familiar term, it probably is to many Christian and Catholic nations in the world, because in English, this feast is the Feast of the Holy Innocents.

Right. And I guess where it kind of developed into this kind of like an April Fool's slash Halloween atmosphere is precisely that word innocent, right? So you're able to pull pranks on the gullible or the innocent.

Like you mentioned, it's rooted in a solemn Christian tradition. But of course, the Philippines has developed kind of like a playful twist to it.

Yeah. And I have a feeling just like the ondas that we discussed last month, it's kind of our way of resisting, kind of.

Yeah. By still incorporating our, I guess, non-Christian tradition to it, right? So, what exactly do we do?

What kind of pranks do we play?

Do you remember this when we were kids?

I was about to say, I don't remember this at all. And it is kind of a dying tradition. So, it's only really still practiced in certain parts of the Philippines.

And even there, it's kind of losing its popularity. So, in particular, I've come across the Yawa-Yawa in Aklan.

Mm-hmm, yeah.

In Ibajay, Aklan, on December 28th, residents wear their masks. It could be men or women, it doesn't matter. And they roam the streets, scaring children, demanding money for food.

Families would appease them by giving money or food. I even came across someone who made a blog that he was actually even kidnapped as a child. And his parents actually paid for this.

Can you imagine the generations of trauma and therapy?

Yes, absolutely. And the whole community participates in this.

So you mentioned this word, Yawa. It's actually a Bisayan word that means devil or demon. So the festival name manifests in how it's celebrated because the people who played the Yawa, they look like devils.

Yes. Did you come across the pictures of these masks?

Yes, they are very scary.

The actual masks themselves are long with protruding tongue, a large bat-like ears, thick eyebrows, and exaggerated facial features. The color palette is where the symbolism really comes in, like fire and blood and war and danger is signified by the color red.

So yeah, the color red, actually in the Catholic faith, is also the liturgical color to symbolize that these kids, these babies died in hatred of Christ as martyrs do.

And then there's the very prominent color of black, which signifies death and evil and also mystery, white, which symbolizes innocence and purity. It's rarely used, but of course, it's still part of the colors of the mask.

I just wanted to mention that even though this has evolved into a harkening to this Catholic tradition, early Spanish historians have actually documented this. And there's one particular one called the Historia de las Islas e Indios de Bisayas that documented this particular tradition. So it really goes way back.

If I'm not mistaken though, they haven't pinpointed the exact origin or even the place where this originated. We always say this, that's a lot of our pre-colonial history has very little documentation to go back to.

And we keep saying this word, Yawa. I just wanna apologize to our Bisayan listeners because apparently this has taken on a different meaning nowadays.

Oh.

Yeah, I had a Bisayan friend who one day, I thought I was just making a joke. And he told me, hey, don't keep saying that because if you say it to someone else, they might take offense.

Okay. And thank you for saying that here.

Because you were gonna say it five more million times. That's our PSA for the podcast episode. And you know, I was mentioning these pre-Hispanic chronicles of the Spanish historians.

Almost all of the Spanish records unanimously define it as a reference to the Christian devil. But of course, we know that the indigenous Filipino probably didn't directly attribute it to the Christian devil. It was probably a reference to their own indigenous demon beliefs.

Folklore.

There's even a theory that this came from a demon goddess. Of course, we can't even verify that now, right? But we're going to link to this research paper that really goes very deep into the fascinating theories about how this term came about.

So, Carmina, we said that we didn't really practice this growing up, but I think we should practice it now. I'll start. On December 28, I'm going to borrow money from you.

No. No, no, no, no. Because I read that if you somehow fall for this, that you are justified in never paying that back. And it's basically on me as the person who agreed to it. So, no thank you.

I believe that prank is referred to as Niños Inocentes, or you have been made a holy innocent.

Yeah. I mean, if it's guaranteeing me going into heaven, okay, but I don't think so. Nice try.

So, in the modern times, apparently, this has evolved to social media. So contemporary celebrations involve fake announcement, social media jokes. But of course, the essence is the same, right?

And I mentioned earlier that this really was a form of resistance for us. And there's actually a formal term to it. It's called cultural inversion. The purpose in the past of this inversion is really a form of communal release. It's kind of an inside joke. All of the locals and the indigenous Filipinos have a little bit of fun without the friars knowing that the fun was being had on them.

Well, good for them.

Right. Whatever gets you through. My hat's off to them. It wasn't easy, as we know, to be Indios during that time. We really suffered a lot. I found a quote that said, Laughter in the Filipino context is not an escape from history. It is a way of confronting it. And whoever said it has not been definitively identified. But I really thought that it was just a clever way of encapsulating our subversion of all of these different traditions.

And then there are people, of course, who are critics of this, who say it's a little bit disrespectful. Because as we noted, it's about a very serious event in the Christian faith, right? But if you start thinking about it in the context of why this developed in our history, perhaps folks can understand that it's about reclaiming some joy from being conquered and turning our collective suffering into laughter and some powerlessness into some kind of control over our destiny or our current present.

While the Catholic Church neither discourages it or encourages it, they do discourage certain parts of the tradition. One is the practice of asking for money. And also, I think in certain parts, they steal the Santo Niño or the image of the Child Christ.

That part obviously is frowned upon by the Catholic Church.

And I just wanted to mention, Patch, this feast really isn't unique to the Philippines, right? Even if ours kind of draws from our pre-colonial past. It's widely celebrated in many parts of Spain.

You're referring not to the prank itself during the Niños Inocentes. You're referring to Niños Inocentes itself.

Yeah, but apparently there's some fun involved in some regions of Spain as well. So, Alicante, Spain, for instance, they have an annual flower fight festival. And there, the Inocentadas dress in full military uniforms and incite organized flower battles.

In Yeste, Spain, the Masqueraders appear with elaborate masks and whips, pursuing those who refuse to pay fines. I don't know how fun it is for the people who are being pursued, but maybe for those who are pursuing them.

You mentioned Mexico, and I think they do have a traditional prank that they do during this holiday, which is setting clocks early.

Yeah, and then one other thing. They stick paper cutout figures on people's backs.

What is the paper cutout? What is the image of it?

They just said it's just funny looking paper cutouts. In this one article that we're going to link in our show notes, the paper cutout is kind of cross-eyed and had its tongue sticking out. And then I found this one.

I'm not really sure in what country or what part of the world. In medieval monastery schools, the youngest nuns or monks still sometimes were allowed to act as an abbess or an abbot for a day. That's a medieval tradition. And this was believed to have originated in Germany. Just when we thought we could not discover anything more during this season, here it is.

And again, it highlights just the connection that Filipinos have between the Catholic faith and the indigenous traditions and folklore that we have infused in modern day traditions.

So with that very playful spirit, we wish all of our listeners happy holidays and a blessed, blessed Christmas. 

And that's our episode. We hope you join us on our next trip.

O siya, siya.

Ingat!

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