Most of us are told as kid that the God of Abraham placed the rainbow in the sky as a reminder to the world that He would never flood the world again. You know, I don’t recall that being in the Bible but as you may know, my memory is really bad. Let us take another look into Filipino culture. I would guess that most cultures have a myth related to how the rainbow came to be. The Rainbow According to Philippine Legends Once upon a time…. There was a farmer that noticed that a fence he built kept getting knocked down during the night. So he decided to wait up one night to find out who was tearing down his fence and to show them some Filipino justice. But, he is surprised to find three star maidens frolicking about his wall. According to this legend, the farmer hid the wings of of the star maidens so she was unable to escape. Soon they were married and they had a son. But, she wasn’t very happy as she was captive. Eventually the star maiden found her wings and escapes back to her world in the sky. The farmer was very sad, he missed he beautiful wife and his son.
Transcript
Most of us are told as kid that the God of Abraham placed the rainbow in the sky as a reminder
to the world that He would never flood the world again. You know, I don’t recall that being in the Bible but as you may know, my memory is really bad.
Let us take another look into Filipino culture.
I would guess that most cultures have a myth related to how the rainbow came to be.
The Rainbow According to Philippine LegendsOnce upon a time…. There was a farmer that noticed that a fence he built kept getting knocked down during the night.
So he decided to wait up one night to find out who was tearing down his fence and to show them some Filipino justice.
But, he is surprised to find three star maidens frolicking about his wall. According to this legend, the farmer hid the wings of of the star maidens so she was unable to escape. Soon they were married and they had a son. But, she wasn’t very happy as she was captive.
Eventually the star maiden found her wings and escapes back to her world in the sky.
The farmer was very sad, he missed he beautiful wife and his son.
The gods saw this and felt sorry for him. They took pity on him and placed the rainbow on earth so that it would reach up to the sky.
Philippine LegendsDid you know according to Philippine legends that the sun and the moon were once married and they shared the sky together? Well, it is true but the sun messed up as men often do.
One day the Sun’s wife, the Moon had to go to harvest vegetables for their children. She
Philippine Legends
asked the Sun to watch over the children but reminded him not to get to close as he would burn them.
As a dutiful father, he doted over the kids and wanted to give them a loving kiss. As he bent down to do so he watched in horror as his children melted.
When his wife, the Moon returned she was angry and they began to fight. The Sun though took the vegetable and threw them at her. He then quickly ran away from her.
To this very day, on a clear night one still see the leafs of vegetables imprinted upon her face! There is no man in the moon, she’s a woman!
Now the Sun misses his wife and wanted to reunite with her and that’s why the Sun follows the Moon. He is to this day chasing her, hoping for his forgiveness. Their children have become stars.
Philippine LegendsPeople Living In The Philippines have some wonderful legends. I will start posting a series of these Philippine legends and folklore. I would enjoy the help and input of Filipino. I suspect but don’t yet know, that these stories take a slightly different twist depending on where one is living in the Philippines.
The first one I will share is known as how the Philippines came to be. I find it a little humorous that tsismis (gossip) played a role in the creation of the Philippines.
You see, in the beginning, Philippine legends tell us that there were only three beings living in the Philippines, in fact of all the universe. These three beings are:
A Giant Bird The Sky The Sea
The Bird grew tired of constantly flying between the sea and the Sky. You see, the Bird had no place to rest during his flights but
wanted to visit with his best friends. The Bird developed a strategy to end his fatigue. He decided he would start trouble between his friends the sky and the sea.
The Bird told the Sky that the Sea planned to drown him. The crafty Bird then told the Sea that the Sky would hit her with stones.
The Sea becoming angry and fearful began to increase the size of her waves. When the Sky noticed this, he first moved further away. The Sea responded with even higher waves. When the Sky saw this, it began to throw soil at the Sea.
This quieted the Sea and created the 7107 island of the Philippines.
And that is how the Philippines came to be.
For people living in the Philippines this is a well known story. There Philippine legends about how the rainbow came to be, why many Filipino have a flat nose, why the sea is salty, how a fish got its scales and many more.
I will soon add a new page to Living In The Philippines — The Cebu Experience about all the legends I can find. I’m going to try to pry some more stories out of Jessie and hopefully get her to write a few. She often has the very short version but I’d really like to get her version of these Philippine legends.
Many are fairly short, feel free to share them in a comment if you like. I’d really like to find a Filipino to help me with this. If you’d like to write articles for this website on Philippine legends or any other topic, please tell me!
As for this installment of Philippine legends, one might say the bird enjoyed tsismis. Perhaps this is also the beginning of tsismis.
Philippine Legends and Folktales
Once upon a time in the Philippines
there was an old woman with strange magical qualities. The local villagers had noticed her house seemed brighter at night even though there was no electricity. According to local tsismis (gossip) some had even seen dwarfs helping a mysterious and beautiful girl at night. No one ever discovered the source of the mysterious night time glow.She lived in the forest on the outskirts of a fishing village and was famous for her beautiful flowers. The fisherman
would barter their treasured catch for her flowers.
A young couple came to visit the village. They were haughty and were not from around there. A proud pair that hated anything they thought was ugly. They would make fun of anything they thought was ugly.
They were out exploring the village one day and came upon the old woman in the forest. Since they found her ugly, they mocked her. After making fun of her, the old woman asked them to leave but they refused.
To punish them, she said “Since you only like beautiful things I will turn you into the most beautiful insect.” She tapped them with her cane and they became the first two butterflies.
Personally, I hope they became the first two butterflies eaten by a beautiful Eagle Owl of the Philippines.
Perhaps, one could always find the beauty in a thing. Nearly everything has its own beauty and people should always be respectful as you never know when you might be turned into bird prey.
Now you know another of the Philippine legends about the first butterfly.
Once upon a time,there was a meeting between gods and goddesses.All of them was happy except for goddess Jai Ling. jai ling was so sad because she couldn't do anything. god then asked what jai ling wants. jai ling then replied that she wants to create a country. then god agreed with her. she then put the soils in a basket then she wents. after the long time gathering soils,jai ling didn't notice that the basket has already a hole. then after then a small island was formed. jai ling noticed it first and it was beautiful! she then named it philippines.
The coconut palm or tree is consider on the Philippines the second national tree, also is the only one that is 100% usable (people use the fruit, leafs and the trunk). But do you know how the coconut tree came to be?.
One legend says that a long time ago, in the kingdom of Bangonansa Polangui
The coconut tree its one of the most important trees on the Philippines, it was born from the true love of a princess and a gardener.
(Kingdom by the River), used to have a kind Ruler, but the kingdom was better know for her beautiful daughter Putri Timbang-Namat.
From all over the seven seas admirers came to see Putri, but she wanted no one. When the Ruler saw all the pretenders, but not interest from her daughter, he told her:
"I want a baby boy to take my place when I die, I would love to carry him and see him before I'm gone". And so, he decided to create a contest to decided who would marry Putri.
But what the Ruler didn't know, it's that Putri met a young gardener in the Palace garden with the name of Wata-Mama. One day Wata told his past to Putri, that he was a royal descent, but that his father was killed by his uncle and he was vanished out of his kingdom when he was three. Putri answered: "We love each other, that's all matters".
One of Putri's pretenders saw her with wata and got jealous, so one night he hid on a dark corner and waited for the lovers, when he saw them walking near him, he struck Wata's head, cutting it off. Putri, fearless, picked up his lover's head.
Putri buried Wata's head and aftewr a few days she noticed a tiny plant growing on the spot the head was buried, and suddenly grew into a big tree, reaching Putri's window, also it produced a fruit of the size of a man's head.
Another version of this legend says that a long time ago, a Chamorro family that was part of the Achote tribe, had a young daughter and she was very beautiful, for this reason she had many admirers.
One day the young girl was very thirsty and she asked people for the juice of a special fruit, everyone tried to find the fruit to give to the young girl, but they couldn't find it. Sadly the girl got sick for the thirst and died.
The father, full of sorrow, took the girl's body and buried it on a hill near the village. Then he put a beautiful headstone, which was covered with flowers by the people.
One day, the villagers saw that a plant they never saw before started to grow on the girl's grave, they built a shelter to protect the plant. After some years passed by, the plant grew twenty feet tall.
The plant also had a strange fruit that grew in it and one of them felt to the floor and cracked open. The chief called the father of the girl to eat the fruit, but he didn't do it, and called the girl's mother to eat it. She did it and described the fruit as chewy and sweet.
From that day on, the plant was called coconut tree, and it became one of the most love trees of that people.
THE FIRST RAINBOW LEGEND
A long time ago, there was a farmer that had a small farm. One day he realizes that one of the walls he built a couple of days ago keeps getting knocked down by someone or something, tired of this happening he decided to wait and catch the responsible.
One evening while he was in guard he heard something strange near that wall, then he ran and surprises three star
The rainbow legend from the Philippines its one of the most loved ones
maidens. When they saw the farmer they ran trying to escape, two were able to do it while one was left behind. The farmer then got a hold of the star maiden and felt in love with her, afraid that she would run away from him, he thinks in a way to stop this from happening, which is hide her magical wings.
Time went by and the farmer and star maiden got married and were blessed with the birth of a beautiful baby boy. They were happy for a long time, until one day that in one of the star maiden's walk she found her magical wings near their house. She then thinks on her sisters and how much fun they use to have, and with this in mind she wears her wings back and with her son next to her, she flew back to her sisters leaving the farmer heart broken.
The gods saw this and felt pity for the tears of the farmer, so they decided to build a way for him to climb to the sky and see his son and wife, making a bridge of different colors.
Another version of the rainbow legend says that one day Bathala planned a journey to Earth to visit his faithful people. He called his children to bid them farewell. All of them came but Bighari, the Goddess of Flowers.
Bathala, who valued promptness, became angry because this was not the first time that Bighari missed their gathering. Thus, he banished her from their heavenly kingdom.
Bighari, at that time, was at her garden on Earth. She wept bitterly when she was told of her banishment. But she sought to cope with her sorrow by causing her garden to bloom profusely.
The legend of the rainbow says that the people that used to live around her garden grew to love her more and more for bringing beauty to their lives. They resolved, after a time, to build her a bower so that they could see her garden even from a long distance.
And so they built it, and decked it all over with colorful blooms. Thereafter, whenever Bighari would travel, people would see her colorful bower against the sky.
DAMA DE NOCHE
There was upon a time, a nobleman who was used to live careless, going to parties every night, drinking and eating and spending his nights with different women.
One night while sitting on his luxurious mansion, the nobleman started to realize that his life was empty, and all of those crazy nights were growing old. With this in mind, embarks in a journey in look for a woman to spend the rest of his life with. After visiting a lot of villages, he finds the perfect woman, and it's called Dama.
Dama de Noche captures everyonewith her sweet smell.
Dama and the nobleman get married and live happy... At first. Dama used to cook and clean for him, but this was not enough for the nobleman anymore. One night the nobleman told Dama she was not good enough for him and went back to his old life. Dama was devastated, crying, went back to the bedroom, and looking to the sky through the window, asked the spirits for help so she won't lose her husband.
Later that night the nobleman came back to his house calling Dama to fix his nightclothes, but she was nowhere to be found. After looking for all over the mansion, he came back to the bedroom, when a sweet smell coming from the window grabbed his attention, he walked to check the window and saw a bush growing in the window, with lots of small white flowers spreading that sweet smell, capturing the nobleman with it.
Dama never came back and the nobleman waited for her return in that window, with only the smell of the flower as company.
THE MAKAHIYA
In a village, a long time ago, it used to live Mang Dondong, his wife Aling Iska and their daughter Maria, who was very loved by her parents. Maria was very obedient, kind and beautiful, but above all very shy, who made her avoid contact with everyone.
Maria had a flowers garden which she used as a sanctuary. All the flowers were beautiful and she used to take good care of them. One fatal day, a band of thieves came to Maria's village, Mang Dondong notice their coming, and running back to his house, took Maria and hid her in the
The Makahiya (shyness in Tagalog)carries the soul of a shy little girl.
garden, while Aling Iska was praying to God to protect her daughter. Suddenly the doors were wide open and the bandits ran inside the house, knocking down Mang Dondong and Aling iska. The thieves trashed the house taking all the money and valuables and fled.
As soon Aling Iska woke up, she ran into the garden looking for Maria, but she was not there. She looked everywhere in the house with no luck. Believing that she was taken by the bandits, went back to the garden crying. While she was there, she felt something by her feet. After a while, she noticed a small plant, she knew then that it was Maria, who was transformed in that plant by God to protect her, Aling Iska's tears then transformed in more of those plants as soon as they touch the garden.
Both Mang Dondong and Aling Iska took care of the plant, which just like Maria was shy.
ORIGIN OF
PINEAPPLE
Have you noticed how a pineapple has many dots that look like human eyes? Well if you want to know why and the legend of the origin of the pineapple, please keep reading:
The legend says that a long time ago on a fruit plantation there was a pretty little girl called Pina, who lived with her hard working mother. Pina was a spoiled girl who got everything she wanted, and never did any chores, and just used to play all the time.
The origin of pineapple was a curse that a mother put on her own daughter by mistake.
Every time Pina's mother asked her to do a chore, she started but stopped halfway and laid it aside for tomorrow, but tomorrow never came, instead she started to play, using excuses for not finish what she was asked to.
Now, there are two versions of the origin of pineapple, one version says that her mother asked her to get some shoes from under the hut. When Pina went down to look for the shoes, she found a doll and started to play with it.
When her mother asked her again for the shoes, Pina replied: "I can't see them!", making her mother upset, so after shouting invectives, she said: "May you grow dozens of eyes!". After saying that Pina was nowhere to be found.
Trying to find Pina, everyone on the fruit plantation looked for her, having no luck. When her mom was losing hope, she was sitting on her backyard crying, when she noticed a very special plant growing in there. She looked closer and noticed that it
was covered with eyes, which made her realized that this plant was Pina, who was transformed thanks to her own curse. The the mother called this plant Pinya (pineapple).
The other version of the origin of pineapple says that one day the mother was very sick, and could not do anything, so she asked Pina to cook some rice for her, but when Pina went to the kitchen, she couldn't find the utensils, at some point even stop looking, her mother then yelled at her: "I hope you grow a thousand eyes so you can find whatever I ask you to find!".
After a long time, the mother noticed that Pina never replied and the house was really silent, and she started to cry for her daughter, but only the neighbors were the ones that responded.
After some days passed by, Pina's mother asked everyone on the fruit plantation about her daughter, but no one knew where she was. One day while cleaning the
backyard, the mother noticed a fruit of the size of a kid's head that sprung from the ground, and thought it was funny that this fruit had a thousand black eyes.
When she saw it a little bit closer, she that it was Pina, who was transformed for the curse she put on her that day. And so, to honor her memory, the mother decided to take the seeds of the fruit and planted them, and when there was a lot of this fruit, she gave them away to everyone.
FIRST BUTTERFLIES
There was upon a time in a village, an old woman used to have a beautiful flower garden by the shore of a lake. The fishermen from around the nearby villages were in love with her and used to come to her and exchange their fishes from flowers.
Everyone in the village noticed something magical about her, because at night her house had a magical glow and once in a while some dwarfs were seen helping a beautiful young woman work in the
The first butterflies were createdfrom a very rude couple
garden. One day a young couple, very proud I must add, visited the village were the old woman lived, and while walking around, noticed the old woman's beautiful flower garden.
The couple decided to get inside the garden and grab some bouquets, when the old woman sees this, walks out of her house and ask the couple to leave, when they turn around to see who was talking to them, they make fun of her and ignore her. Then the old woman, insulted, touches the couple with her cane saying:
"Since you love beautiful things, you will live from now on as beautiful insects".
And that day was created the butterflies came to be, who always are found near beautiful flowers.
And this is how the Butterflies came to be.
FIRST MONKEY
A long time ago, a young girl lived in a forest who was an apprentice of the Goddess Of Weaving, who always looked over the young girl.
One day the Goddess called the girl and ask her to make a dress made of cotton. The young girl had no idea in how to make this, and so the Goddess explain it to her: Clean the cotton, beat it, spin it, weave it into cloth, cut it and finally sew it. What
The first Monkey was a girl who was punished for being lazy
the Goddess didn't know it was that the girl was lazy and thought that making a dress was a lot of work. Believing it would be easier, she just took the leather cloth used to beat the cotton and wore it, plus also it would last longer than the cotton.
When the Goddess asked the girl to show her the dress, she got furious to find out what the girl didn't do what she was asked. As punishment the Goddess made the leather stick to the poor girl's skin and the beating stick became her tail.
MAYON VOLCANO
The legend of the Mayon volcano says that a long time ago, there used to live a beautiful girl called Darang Magayon, who had many guys after her from various tribes, one of them was Pagtuga, the tribal chief from Iriga, who was also a great hunter. But Darang Magayon was not interested on him.
The Mayon volcano is the grave of two lovers, the spirit of Darang Magayon lives on the volcano, while the spirit of Panganoron lives on the clouds, kissing her every time he passes by.
One day, Darang Magayon was bathing in the Yaw river, and she slipped on the rocks. She did not knew how to swim, but then Panganoron, son of Rajah Karilaya, from the Tagalogs, saved her while he was walking by the river.
After saving her life, Panganoron started to court her, and after some days she finally accepted his proposal, and so Panganoron decided to ask Darang Magayon's father, Rajah Makusong for her hand in matrimony. The father accepted him.
The legend says that when Pagtuga heard of the news he got very angry, so he decided to kidnapped Rajah Makusong and took him to the mountains, then he told everyone that he would release him if Darang Magamon would marry him. Afraid that Pagtuga would hurt her father, she accepted to be his wife.
When Panganon knew about the situation , he asked to his warriors to follow him to the mountains to fight against Panganoron. The battle was fierce.
Panganoron killed Pagtuga, but later he was killed by an arrow thrown by one of Pagtuga's warriors. Sadly another arrow pierced Darang Magayon when she was running to the arms of his love, killing her.
After the battle was over, Rajah Makusong dug a grave and laid the bodies of both lovers in it. As days passed by, people who went to the grave to pay respect, saw that the grave was rising, turning into a land form and they started to call it Mayon (short for Mayon).
While some says that the eruptions on the Mayon volcano, are the sings of the love between the lovers. Other says that the spirit of Darang Magayon lives on the volcano, and the spirit of Panganoron lives on the clouds above, and all year long disperse rain to keep the flowers and plants fresh, so it stays beautiful.
PHILIPPINES CREATION
The Universe was formed only for the sky at the top, the sea at the bottom, and a beautiful bird who flew non stop. The bird, bored and tired of fly around, thought it would be fun to start a fight between the sky and the sea.
The bird told the sky that the sea was trying to drown her for no reason with his waves, then she told the sea that the sky,
The Philippines Creation was result from a fight between the sea and the sky
with no reason, started to throw stones from above trying to hit her.
Both the sea and sky believed the bird's lies and tried to protect her from each other. The sea attacked the sky with big waves, to defend himself the sky went even higher and started to throw soil to the sea to try to control the waves.
The soil calmed the waves and made the sky lighter. When the waves were no more, the soil became 7,000 beautiful islands. And this is the story of how the Philippines Began.
Another version of the Philippines creation myth, says that at the beginning of time,the first three deities that lived on the universe were Bathala, Amihan better known as the North wind and Aman Sinaya, the Goddess of sea and sky.
The three gods divided the the universe, so all three could rule over it, Bathala took the sky, Sea was taken by Aman Sinaya and the realm between was given to
Amihan. But differences started to grow between Bathala and Aman Sinaya.
Due to these differences, Bathala and Aman Sinaya alwaysd tried to win over each other, Aman Sinaya sending typhons to the sky while Bathala used his bolts. But when Aman Sinaya sent a big storm to the sky, Bathala tried to stop her sending boulders of mountains to stop her, creating lots of islands.
Amihan was very sad for all of these fights, so in an attempt to stop them, she turn herself into a golden bird and started to fly between the sky and sea going back and forth. With this both realms started to get close to each other, until finally they met. With this action, both Bathala and Aman Sinaya decided not to fight anymore and became friends.
And these are the Legends of the Creation of the Philippines.
WHY SEA BECAME SALTY
A long time ago, there was a giant that used to live in one of the islands next to the nice people, this giant was very generous and always gave them salt to prepare very tasty meals.
One day, the ocean was very agitated and the people could not go to the giant's island for some salt, the days passed by and the sea was still very rough,
The Sea became salty when some bags with salt felt in it
eventually they ran out of salt for their food and started to find a way to go and get it. A child gave them the idea to ask the gentle giant to stretch one of his legs so they could cross the ocean and get the salt they needed.
The giant accepted the idea, but when he stretched his leg, he didn't notice that landed on an anthill. This made the ants furious and started to bite the poor giant's leg, the giant, in pain, asked the people to hurry.
As soon as the people made it to the other side, the giant gave them sacks full of salt. When they were done the giant stretched his leg one more time, landing, again on the anthill.
The giant in more pain than before, begged to the people to hurry because the ants were biting him again, but the sacks were so heavy that slowed down the people. Sadly before the people were able to reach their own village, the giant in a scream of pain moved his leg to the ocean
so the ants won't bite him anymore, throwing the people and the sacks of salt in it.
The giant saw the people drowning and in a quick move save them, but the salt melted in the ocean, that at that time didn't have any taste, making it salty.
And this is the Legend of how the sea has the salty taste.
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humans lived in the land, the sun and the moon were married and shared the sky. The moon decided to go and pick up some vegetables to the forest, leaving the sun in charge of their children, but not before warning him not to get close to them, or they would get burned.
<a href="http://w w w .read-legends-and-myths.com/s
The sun, at a safe distance, look over the children, that were sleeping, but he had the urge to kiss them, that he forgot the moon's warning and bended over to kiss them, and when he got close, horrified, sees how they started to melt.
When his wife the moon came back from the forest, she found out that all of her children melted, with the sun nowhere to be found. Time went by and finally the sun decided to come back home, what started as an apologize, ended up in a fight, finishing with the sun throwing the vegetables at the moon's face, who left him forever.
Now even after a lot of years has passed, you can see on the moon's face some vegetables from that fight, all of her children became stars, and still in an attempt to be together again, the sun follows the moon.
PHILIPPINE MYTHS
As with every other countries and cultures, the myths of the Philippines want to provide explanation to the strange natural occurrences and the origin of beings.
Their mythology is very diverse because of the various ethnic groups that live on the many islands.
On the Philippine myths you can find some spirits that are believed still roam the islands.
Before the arrival of the Spaniards and the introduction of Catholicism in the 1500's, all the different groups had their own myths, sharing just some beliefs, like there was a heaven, a hell and a human soul.
An example of the different myths is that for the Tagalogs, their Supreme God was Bathala, while for the Bikolanos, Gueurang was their Supreme God. Another facts, is that like the other old cultures, all these myths were shared in an oral way.
As Catholicism and other religions such like Muslim started to spread and be more popular on the Philippines, the Filipinos started to believe in just one God. But still on these days, some of them believed that some spirits from the myths like Kapre, Duwende and the Manananggal, pervade the islands.
On the islands, the Tagalogs believed that there was a life after death, some rituals were practiced by them, such as bury a dead person with its belongings, because
they might need them on their journey to the afterlife.
Some Philippine myths says that the souls of good people go to Maca, which is the equivalent of the Christian paradise. In there they have eternal peace. But like any other religion, there is also a place for the evil.
The Kasanaan, or hell, was the place the ones who deserved punishment were brought. Sitan was the one in charge of this place with the help of other deities, such as Mangangauay, Manisilat, Mankukulam and Huldoban.
One important thing to say about the Filipinos, is that they are very passionate about their myths, and value them, this is their way to give importance and values for what their ancestors had done for their country.
Now please enjoy some myths by clicking on the links on your right. Also please help
us grow and submit in here your favorite Philippine myth for us to enjoy.
