Bibinquerang Manananggal

please bear with me:

the manananggal is a vampiric creature from philippine mythology. most of the time she's just a normal human being, but on some nights, she grows wings and her upper body separates from its lower half and she flies off in the night looking for victims. she's normally depicted with bat wings, but i feel this is perhaps a western influence on the myth. in fact i remember when i was a kid, one the maids we had used to tell me a story of how manananggals transform to their night-flying form. she said the manananggal goes to a clump of bananna trees, rubs oil around her body, and recites some forgotten chant to invoke the magic for the transformation. the creature's wings then appear and take the form of bananna leaves. here, though, i depicted her with bird-like wings.

the bibingka, on the other hand, is a traditional christmas rice-and-wheat flour cake, baked with coconut milk. they're usually found sold outside churches during early morning (and evening) christmas masses, the wafting delicious smell they emit enticing the people to have an early bibingka breakfast. the unique thing about it is that it's cooked in a novel manner. the sweet batter is poured on a molded bannana leaf, and is drizzled with cheese and salted egg slices. two vessels containing coal are used - one placed below the leaf-mold, and another above it. after it's cooked, the surface of the cake is lightly coated with butter, then sugar is sprinkled along with coconut snow. it actually exemplifies the filipino taste for counterpoint in its dishes (sweet countered with salty, extreme blandness countered with sharp tastes, etc).

this is actually for that christmas postcard art trade i'm organizing. it's really not the final thing (still have to make that christmas-y border, and, well, make the whole thing more festive). it's just that i really wanted to submit something since i haven't done so for some time now.

please view my other manananggal stuff:

manananggal: where's the party - [link]

manananggal and young diwata - [link]