The Bakunawa is this great dragon, this huge snake that flies up into the sky and swallows the moon. To scare it, you have to make a lot of noise...you have to make a lot of sound. Supposedly the tribes would bang their drums and yell at it so that it would spit out the moon again
and that's that most popular story I know as far as the Bakunawa is
concerned. Actually Bakunawa is a very Visayan god, he is the dragon that swallows the moon. I just found it fascinating that when the Spanish Priests came over and they started to Christianize the Pagans. They demonized Bakunawa and they made him the Satan. They would say that Bakunawa would come and eat you, you know and the mothers picked it up and warned their children if you don't behave...so all of a sudden they turned Bakunawa into the demon. When I began the series I
thought Bakunawa would be one of the easier episodes to research. I was
wrong. Researching the giant serpent sent me
down a path which saw the need to create a chart with all Philippine beliefs and
the region's those beliefs came from. In areas like Bicol, Bakunawa is known as a god. Whereas in the Visayas is known as a
colossal sea creature and adversarial the gods. In Mindanao the moon eater is
known as Minokawa, and appears as a monstrous bird like being. I was also required to spend
more time migrations and foreign influences and
after all that I still didn't have the answers I was looking for. Bakunawa was first documented in 1637 by Father Alonso De Mentrida, then again in 1668 by
Father Ignacio Alcina who wrote the Eclipse was called Bakunawa because a big
snake by this name swallows the moon. In one of the first Bisaya Spanish
dictionaries the eclipse of the sun and moon was also called Bakunawa. While
this provides evidence of belief in a mythical being swallowing the moon, I
couldn't find any documented stories about Bakunawa. So I expanded my search to the surrounding countries.The ancient Chinese believed that a solar eclipse
occurred when a legendary celestial dragon devoured the Sun. They also believed that this dragon attacks the Moon during a lunar eclipse.
It was a tradition to bang drums and pots and make loud noise during the eclipse to frighten the dragon away. Even more recently, in the nineteenth century, the Chinese navy fired its cannons during a lunar eclipse to discourage the dragon from devouring the moon. We used to have such wonderful trade with China . They've influenced our language, they've
influenced the way we do things, our tools. I think it's sad also that the Chinese have forgotten they've traded with the Philippines. At some point in history
one of the Sultans went to visit China is an esteemed guest. If you go to China
there's a monument of him there. The strong trade between China and The Philippines seemed seemed like a solid lead. I got absorbed in the incredible ties they shared culturally before the Spanish arrived. However, in the case of Bakunawa, the Philippine areas influenced by early Chinese contact, known as the Sinified States, did not match up with the areas that predominantly believed in Bakunawa. The regions did however match up with the areas under Indianized influence. In episode 1, we discussed how trade brought Hinduism to SE Asia which which influenced areas in the Philippines. This led me to the stories of Rahu - a Hindu demigod who sought immortality by drinking a divine nectar. The Sun and Moon deities told Vishnu about this and before the nectar could pass Rahu's throat, Vishnu decapitated him. The power of the nectar made his disembodied head immortal. To take vengeance, Rahu occasionally attempts to swallow the sun or moon. Since he’s disembodied, his meals fall out his neck. The body of Rahu, known as Ketu is said to have merged with a serpent. We know with certainty that versions of this story made it to areas in SE Asia where Kala Rau is a demon. To this day, during a lunar eclipse, some in Indonesia pound utensils which symbolize Kala Rau’s body. It's thought that demon feels the pain, causing the eclipse to end.
There are other stories in Javanese mythology, where Batara Kala is known as the s as the god of the underworld who was sent by the devas to Earth to punish humans for their evil habits. In addition to attacking the sun and moon, He devoured humans and children to satisfy his insatiable appetite. If we attach the evolution of Rahu to the expansion of of the Indianized Kingdoms in SE asia it clearly shows how the stories were brought to the Philippines. Regional identifiers such as dragons and serpents were adopted to reflect the societal beliefs and environments of the time. Stories of Bakunawa as a god and demon began to emerge. The most famous Bakunawa and the 7 moons. This story was of particular interest to me because it is the only story I know of in Philippine myth and folklore which mentions the 7 moons. Many areas in the ancient Philippines were astute in astronomy. In fact the Ilongos had a 12 month calendar based on the lunar cycle. This has brought speculation that the 7 moons could reference the lunar cycles for planting and harvesting, or even the phases of the moon. The very first written account of Bakunawa and the 7 moons came from Fernando Buyser a Filipino poet, publisher and priest in Cebu who also was among the first to publish in the Bisyan language. In the story, "Ang Bakunawa", he claims that according to the original story teller the 7 moons represent the 7 days of the week. Buyser also makes reference to the number 7 reminding us of "Revelations" and then continues to o use the story almost as a Catechism. So it leaves me to question if, the story of Bakunawa and the 7 moons that we know today is a fanciful twist on existing folklore, or was it really something that was passed down and evolved through oral tradition. Perhaps it's a case for creating a stronger distinction between folklore and early 20th century Philippine literature. The origin of Bakunawa is linked directly to the Hindu god Rahu. It then evolved into both a god and a demon with the expansion of the Indianized kingdoms in SE Asia, which saw the belief brought to the Philippines as the cause of the lunar eclipse. Evidence shows that the story of Bakunawa and the 7 moons may be an early 20th century poetic interpretation of existing oral folklore. Regardless, Bakunawa has become a staple in Philippine Mythology and has been used as a storytelling tool for centuries. We need to resist the urge to invalidate these mythical creatures because of limited documentation. It is also important to realize that each unique mythical being is a microcosm of Philippine Mythology and when properly mapped, it is one of the best cultural and literary resources to unify the Filipino identity. The young readers especially are starting to have a sense of this and they're passing it on to their friends. So a lot of the time
it's just about, 'hey we didn't know we had this. Why aren't we reading more about it.' But I think it's an open field now. I
think the more we get into what we are as Filipinos etcetera, the animism, the pantheism. If we're going to understand ourselves we're gonna have to accept that. And we do. And the great thing about folklore as far as we're concerned is that it is carried on until today, except that there is no formal
place to learn all of it. It's still very much an oral tradition as far as we're concerned. We like being entertained and we like entertaining and it comes from oral
tradition I guess. Oral tradition plus being conquered so many time, being colonized so many times and being suppressed so many times up until
MartialLaw. You have a Spanish, Japanese, you have Martial Law where Filipino weren't allowed to express themselves, they weren't allowed to write anything or they might be
killed. So what better way to do it than just tell people stories? Our creatures,
our myth, our beliefs and our superstitious and rituals. I found them cool. It was for me, an assertion of identity and an assertion of belief. It was something native, a native
kind of weapon I could use to hack away at the untruths that I saw out there.