Bakunawa

One thing humanity has always been driven to do is explain the world in a way that makes sense. The only thing is, what made sense hundreds of years ago is very different to what makes sense to us today.

But you have to credit their inventiveness and, frankly, sometimes I prefer these old stories to the scientific reality. They’re usually much more interesting.

Ancient Filipinos didn’t have modern science, but they still wanted to be able to explain why sometimes the moon vanished from the sky, why the earth trembled beneath their feet, why water fell from the heavens, or why air moved seemingly on its own.

And the solution they came up with was the Bakunawa.

A huge beast, large enough to devour the moon. A dragon-like sea serpent, typically depicted with a single horn on its nose and a looped tail.

A creature so fearful that it was often used to decorate the swords of sacred warriors or mighty warships, bestowing upon the bearer the power of the Bakunawa.

One story claims there were once 7 moons created by the god Bathala, and the Bakunawa was so captivated by their beauty that he rose from the ocean and ate six of them. The seventh was protected by humans rushing outside to bang pots and pans, startling the Bakunawa. In other accounts, they played soothing music to lull it back to sleep.

In another story, the Bakunawa had a sister in the form of a sea turtle. She would land on the Philippine archipelago to lay her eggs, and every time she did, the sea crept further inland. Afraid it would eventually drown their island, the locals killed the turtle. The Bakunawa was so enraged that he swallowed the moon - though the legends don’t say exactly why this would punish those who murdered his sister. But in any case, the locals begged their supreme god to punish Bakunawa. He refused to do it directly. Instead, he told them to make loud noises until the Bakunawa released the moon.

Yet another story tells of the Bakunawa falling in love with a human woman. When the leader of her tribe discovered this romance, he ordered their home to be destroyed by fire. Enraged by the loss, the Bakunawa attempted to devour all seven moons in vengeance, but the supreme deity protected the final moon by banishing the Bakunawa into the sea. This one is maybe my favourite version because it holds that eclipses are the Bakunawa’s attempts to return to his home and family.

But perhaps the most peculiar version of the myth held that there were two Bakunawa: one that flew into the sky and tried to eat the moon, and another terrestrial form that acted as a mobile island and even had communities living on its back!

Even with so many variations of the myth - one for every tribe - a few factors remained steady throughout: there were once seven moons, the Bakunawa devoured six, and the only way to protect the last moon is to make noise. Sometimes soothing but usually just loud and obnoxious, enough to startle an animal.

Today, there are still tribes in the Philippines who are faithful to these legends even in the face of modern science. They still go outside during eclipses to bang pots and pans together to make the Bakunawa give back the moon.

You might ask why, given that they must know that an eclipse is just a shadow and that the moon will soon reappear.

Well, the Filipinos have a proverb for that: “The footprint of the old people never disappears.”

And who knows? Maybe they’re right.