Filipino people, especially those who are staying away from urbanized areas believe in ‘usog’. This is the term used for ‘evil eye’. They believe that some people, though not bad, can sometimes be used by the devil or some bad elements to give sickness and tantrums that are more than normal to the baby. It usually comes with the idea that bad things ride on the words spoken by people to describe the baby or the way they look at it, whether those were appreciation or not. To prevent this, they let the baby wear a bracelet made of beads which have been blessed, tie or pin a small cellophane with a garlic inside to the baby’s clothes, or put a lipstick mark on the baby’s forehead. One ‘usog’ already happens, they usually bring the baby to the manghihilot or find the person who said something to the baby and have that person draw a cross on the baby’s forehead using his thumb and saliva.
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