ADIVAY

Adivay is to pay one a visit, have fellowship with, keep someone company, have fun, and/or the coming together of (Ibaloy dictionary, 2011).  Adivay happens in weddings, ritual feasts, wakes, festivals, etc. where people stay in groups and share a good laugh over their jokes, stories, and anecdotes, they talk about genealogies, tease each other, discuss social issues or current events, join in the bah-diw, dance in the Tayaw or Bendian, sing songs, play games, etc.    Adivay brings people together.  It strengthens relations among relatives and the community. 

When somebody visits a sick friend or a relative whom he hasn't seen for long while, it is also called adivay.  My mother used to say, "Nak ka adivayen si auntie Mahaysha." and she would bring balat (bananas), pangshan (pineapples) or pising (gabi leaves) with her.

With the advancement of communications technology and with the "busyness of life" however,  people rarely visit each other and make adivay.  Relatives and friends are now just a text or phone call away and adivay also taken a new form - conversations on facebook.  When in a good and/or funny thread, an Ibaloy would comment, "Mapteng adivayan jo'd jay a." (You have a good adivay here).  There are fewer and fewer canaos being hosted by families as well, it being expensive and for others, it is against their faith.  

To give the Benguet people more opportunities for adivay, the Benguet Adivay festival is held every November and the municipalities hold their own Adivay festivals as well.  I-Benguets abroad also synchronize their Adivay fest to that of Benguet's back home. Clans also stage reunions for relatives to meet at least once a year or once in two years and make adivay.   This way, the best practices in the Ibaloy culture remains among the Ibaloy children (I hope).  Kalejo, man-aadivay!

OWIK

photo courtesy of Et-chel

Owik is the ceremonial way of killing a pig, thrusting a pointed stick (also called the owik itself)  into the side of the pig and into his heart (Ibaloy dictionary, 2011) so that the blood comes out.

When the pig is butchered, the pig has to face towards the east (badalan).  The reason could be the same reason as the Muslims face the east whenever they pray and the Ibaloys believe in it, too. 

Owik signals the beginning of the ritual feast.  When the owik gets into the pig’s heart, the pig is supposed to “cry” out loud (onpalak) and produce a lot of blood, otherwise, it is a bad omen for the ritual and for the hosts, so the mambunong would ask for another pig to be butchered, unless he has prayer that will soma (antidote) the bad omen.

The cry of the pig is also a way to call the neighbors.  In the past where there were no mobile phones and the nearest neighbor could be 1-hour’s walk away, it takes a lot of time to invite the nearest neighbor.  So if the neighbors hear the pig’s cry, they go where the pig’s palak is coming from, not only to eat but to help in the preparations for the feast, to take a share in the watwat and most importantly, to mingle with their kaits (meki-adivay).

SIMENG

To lose one’s way, get lost, as one who walks in circle in a forest (Ibaloy book, 2011).

Ibaloys do have plenty of stories regarding angel/banig (ghosts), timongaw (malevolent spirits), ampasit (spirit owner/nature spirit), or eg mah-sas (unseen) and a lot of Igorot rituals have something to do with these suprabeings.  There’s this one kind of spirit that causes one to get lost, going in circles in one place even though the person is very familiar with it.  Old folks say, if one experiences this, he has to take off his clothing then he’ll find his way.

I heard a lot of stories on simeng and one of my brothers experienced it when he was young.  He used to taunt ghosts, saying he was not afraid of them. One night, as he was on his way home, he suddenly couldn’t find his way. Apparently, he had been going in circles at one place until he remembered he had to undress.  As we couldn’t find an explanation to this, some say that when one undresses, the banig would laugh at the naked man and would forget about what he has done to him.  It might be a joke but true enough, my brother suddenly found his way as soon as he was naked.  He never taunted ghosts after that.