09/12/2024
🤭
The Oro, Plata, Mata is one of the Filipino beliefs in home construction. This spanish phrase litterally means Gold, Silver, and Death.
According to this superstitious belief, any home’s staircase should never have steps that are multiple of three and the words Oro, Plata, Mata are used to define every group of three steps. If it happens that your staircase ends with either Oro or Plata it is believed to bring great fortune. And on the other end, if your staircase ends with the Mata, it said that this attracts bad fortune to all residing in the house.
According to a renowned architect, Ar. Isabelle Ong Sitco, “You count the first step as oro, the second step as plata, the third step as mata, then go back to oro as fourth step, and so on,”. While many may dismiss the belief, per the architect, many homeowners would rather include this superstition in considering and finalizing the design of their dream homes.
Where did it start? There are various speculations as to the origin of this well-accepted superstitious belief. For one, a similar belief is also present in several Feng Shui books suggesting that the origin of the popular superstition was Chinese. However, others dispute that view since in Chinese popular beliefs, it is not the number 3 that is viewed as bad, rather, number 4 is, because “four” almost sounds like “die” in their language. Another speculation on its origin is that it was a result of the colonization of the Philippines by Spain for over three centuries. A palpable evidence to this claim is the fact that the phrase itself is in the Spanish language.