Agimat - March 15, 2011
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Agimat or bertud or anting-anting, is a Filipino word for amulet or charm.[1] Although stereotyped as a cross, a flat, round or triangular golden pendant accompanying a necklace or a necklace-like item, it is also depicted as an enchanted stone that came from the sky or from the heart of a banana tree at midnight (mutya). In relation to the latter, it is usually ingested. It is usually accompanied by a small book of magic incantations which must be read during Good Friday or a certain special date to attain the amulet's full power and benefit. An agimat could also be in the form of a clothing with magic words inscribed on it, or even in the form of edible enchanted mud (in Tagalog, mud is putik).[2] Other methods of obtaining an agimat is by getting the liquid that is drained from an exhumed body of an unbaptized child or aborted fetus or offering food and drinks to the spirits in a cemetery during midnight of Holy Wednesday or Holy Thursday.[3] Most of the amulets bear Latin inscriptions into it, and most of the places these Agimat are sold near churches or on its courtyard or in the market near the church, like in Quiapo district in Manila. Filipino fighters also wore anting-anting to battle against the Spaniards and the Americans. Filipino hero Macario Sakay wore a vest that has religious images and Latin phrases to protect him from bullets.[4] Former Philippine-President Ferdinand Marcos, was given an anting-anting by Gregorio Aglipay that could make Marcos invisible.[5] Marcos said that the agimat is a sliver of wood that was inserted into his back before the Bataan campaign on 1942
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