From My Own Perspective
DOON PO SA AMIN… NOONG ARAW Part 2
I.J. CASTILLO
Toronto, Canada
Of all the myths that aroused the greatest dread in us were those that revolved around our 400-year old church. We heard from the old Sacristan stories of “Mga dwende sa Convento (gnomes in the Convent) and the creepy story of a headless figure with candles in both hands walking in the dark choir loft or in the aisle to the main altar.
Then again we listened with nervous fascination to the eerie story of the white lady. Supposedly the ghost would appear before an unsuspecting individual who happened by the Pintong Lalaki (the arched side entrance of the church) during the unholy hours of the night.
Who among kids of our generation would not have been told that the iconic figure on the base of the church tower, colloquially called Latore, was that of a child’s who fell from the tower? Except for words of mouth, no one could give an actual account of a child falling from the tower; but even so we became skittish at the mere thought of a smashed body. We realized later on that, whether fiction or not, this story was spun if only to deter us kids from going up the tower. Yet, it didn’t prevent us one bit, as access to the tower was always open.
The Latore was among our early childhood exploits and had been an enigma to our growing minds. I would climb the tower with my friends through the rickety stairs with slim wooden treads and wobbly bamboo hand rails. On the way up we would mischievously disturb the ibong simbahan (swallows) and the bats from their daytime hibernation, then inquisitively marveled at the ancient dates on the huge bells hanging from antiquated wood yokes and playfully tinkled a bigger cracked bell that was lying idly on the tower floor.
When we asked why the bigger bell had such seemingly unusual random marks Perto, the church kampanario (bell ringer) and hueting kubrador, explained to us through a combination of sign language and garbled words that those were bite marks of the men who were testing their anting-anting (amulet) on Good Friday midnight.
This strange ritual was to insure them against dangers or harm from any human adversary and evil spirits, and thus enhancing their self-absorbed bravados. Some folklore!
Our church bells serve as the town’s carillon that reverberate three times daily- at 6:00 am for the early morning mass, 12:00 noon to mark the day’s divide, and 6:00 pm for Oraciones or the Angelus. At 8:00 in the evening the bells would ring the final tolls.
In addition, these same bells would peal plaintive plegaria several times a day to announce a death in the community. For joyous and special church occasions such as Misa Cantada (High Mass), fiesta, weddings, and our Lord’s resurrection at dawn of Sabado de Gloria (later changed to Lingo ng Pagkabuhay, the Easter Sunday), the bells would ring the repikal or dupikal.
They also served as alarm bells in emergencies such as the raging afternoon inferno that gutted a wide portion of Ibaba during that fateful Holy Week of 1968.
