I mentioned in a previous post that I spent my childhood and teenage summers at my maternal grandmother's house in a little town in Zambales. One of my memories when visiting a newborn cousin or a relative who just gave birth is how the elderly handle comments from admiring fans. It seemed like we cannot praise the little baby without being shushed. After each positive word we utter, they would exclaim "pwera usog" and they would wet their thumb with their saliva then rub it on the baby's forehead. And that is just one of the many things I have witnessed.
Usog is a concept similar to evil eye curse. It is believed that comments from other people will cause the baby to become sickly. So something good, like a positive comment or a praise, will result into something bad? That's why a lot of people now just shrug it off as a superstitious belief.
And to counter the bad effects of usog, mothers would pin a lubigan to the baby's shirt or make the baby wear a red and black bracelet (sometimes orange and black) made from corals, the corales. I was told by the vendor that lubigan is a little pouch with dried ginger and some other herbs. I just learned recently that lubigan is a medicinal plant that is used to cure cough and tummy aches, so maybe the lubigan plant was the original content of the pouch. The little pouch usually comes with the corales pulseras / bracelet, which is originally made from corals but a lot are just made from plastic now. These are sold for P20 from vendors outside a church like Quiapo Church.
Here are some kontra-usog pics as modeled by my baby*:
Usog is a concept similar to evil eye curse. It is believed that comments from other people will cause the baby to become sickly. So something good, like a positive comment or a praise, will result into something bad? That's why a lot of people now just shrug it off as a superstitious belief.
And to counter the bad effects of usog, mothers would pin a lubigan to the baby's shirt or make the baby wear a red and black bracelet (sometimes orange and black) made from corals, the corales. I was told by the vendor that lubigan is a little pouch with dried ginger and some other herbs. I just learned recently that lubigan is a medicinal plant that is used to cure cough and tummy aches, so maybe the lubigan plant was the original content of the pouch. The little pouch usually comes with the corales pulseras / bracelet, which is originally made from corals but a lot are just made from plastic now. These are sold for P20 from vendors outside a church like Quiapo Church.
Here are some kontra-usog pics as modeled by my baby*:
*no, he doesn't wear any of these. :)
Lubigan and Corales
Lubigan when pinned to shirt
The corales when worn
And another shot
Lubigan when pinned to shirt
The corales when worn
And another shot
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