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Bakunawa +Filipino Legend+

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The Great Bakunawa

A legend from my mother's home country, the Philippines, the Bakunawa [also spelled Bakonawa, Baconaua, or Bakonaua] is a dragon often depicted as a gigantic sea serpent with two pair of wings.

Bakunawa Legend (and variations) from Wikipedia cos I'm lazy like that.

Tales about the Bakunawa say that it is the cause of eclipses. During ancient times, Filipinos believe that there are seven moons created by Bathala (Divine God of Philippine Mythology) to light up the sky. The Bakunawa, amazed by their beauty, would rise from the ocean and swallow the moons whole, angering Bathala and causing them to be mortal enemies.

To keep the Bakunawa moons from completely being swallowed, ancient Filipinos would go out of their homes with pans and pots, and would make noise in order to scare the Bakunawa into spitting out the moon back into the sky. Some of the people in the villages would play soothing sounds with their musical instruments, in hopes that the dragon would fall into a deep sleep. Thus, the brave men of the village hoped that while the dragon was hypnotized by the musical sounds they could somehow slay the dragon. Although the dragon was known as a "moon eater" it was also known as a "man eater".
Other tales tell that the Bakunawa has a sister in the form of a sea turtle. The sea turtle would visit a certain island in the Philippines in order to lay its eggs. However, locals soon discovered that every time the sea turtle went to shore, the water seemed to follow her, thus reducing the island's size. Worried that their island would eventually disappear, the locals killed the sea turtle.

When the Bakunawa found out about this, it arose from the sea and ate the moon. The people were afraid so they prayed to Bathala to punish the creature. Bathala refused but instead told them to bang some pots and pans in order to disturb the serpent. The moon is then regurgitated while the Bakunawa disappeared, never to be seen again.
The island where the sea turtle lays its eggs is said to exist today. Some sources say that the island might just be one of the Turtle Islands.

Others tell how the Bakunawa fell in love with a human girl in one of the native tribes. The head of the tribe found out about their affair and had their house burned to ashes. The Bakunawa, finding out about this, became immersed in anger and tried to take revenge by eating all the 12 moons. When the Bakunawa was about to eat the last one, Bathala took action and punished the Bakunawa by banishing it from its home away from the sea. It also tells that the reason of the eclipses is how the Bakunawa is trying to come back to its home and deceased family.



The Artwork and design is copyrighted to Mercy Huang/Emily Bigg. Do NOT trace, copy or deface this artwork in anyway. Some rights reserved.

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Comments4
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cioven's avatar
Nice work sir, thank you for posting this.

Hi. my name is Jovencio Jimenez and Im a researcher about Philippine mythology.. I would just like to ask if you could participate in a survey that I made for my thesis, this involves the effect of an innovation of Philippine Mythology, by applying illustration from culture mapping. "Culture mapping", a method created by the author to create distinction of the gods over other cultures. for more information you can visit my page at 

www.facebook.com/mitopilipinas

the survey only consists of 13 questions, and would take only 3-5 minutes of your time. 

freeonlinesurveys.com/s.asp?si…

hoping for your response

salamat