Northern Samar - People and Culture

People and Culture

The People

The people of Northern Samar were previously called the "Ibabaonons". Generally, they are members of the "Waray" or "Waray-waray" or "Waraynon", the people of Eastern Visayas or Samar-Leyte region. To distinguish themselves from the Westehanon (people from Samar) and Estehanon (from Eastern Samar) when Samar Island was split into three provinces in 1965, and the Leyteños (the people from the Leyte Island), they now call themselves as "Ninorte Samareño or Nortehanon".

Languages/Dialects Spoken

Majority of the people in the province of Northern Samar speak the Norte Samarnon, a variation of Waray-Waray. About 4.5 percent of the population, especially in the island towns, speak Cebuano, while a minority speaks Inabaknon, a unique language said to be one of the most preserved languages to date. This is the native tongue of the populace in the island town of Capul.

Ninorte Samarnon usually is further subclassified into Balicuatro, Central and Pacific speakers.

Tagalog and English are also widely used and understood in Northern Samar.

Religions

The communities of this province are predominantly Catholic. Other religious groups are Iglesia ni Cristo, Philippine Independent Catholic Church (Aglipayan), Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Church of Latter-Day Saints and other Christian sects. A small number of population are Muslim.