The Sun Eaters of the Philippines
Anyone who is from the states should already know this by now, but if not get ready because there is a total solar eclipse today!
The celestial and solar event is something that we don’t see everyday, in fact the last time a total solar eclipse was view able across the continental US was on June 8, 1918! There have been other times that a solar eclipse was passed through the states, however only in a few states were you able to view the event.
So in honor of the upcoming eclipse, I will talk about the various mythical creatures from the Philippines who are known through folklore to devour the sun and cause the solar eclipses.
Let us start of with the most famous of them all, the Bisayan & Bikolano serpentine dragon, Bakunawa. Though he is most often known to be a moon eater he is also a sun eater. In the lunar lore he was known to try to devour the 7 moons that once existed however before he can eat the last moon the people would make loud noises to scare off the dragon to try and save the last moon. Every lunar eclipse when he would try again to eat the moon people would wait for him to arrive and bang pots, pans, and the floors in hopes of frightening the dragon away once more. With lunar eclipses happening often, folklore refers to Bakunawa often as the moon eater. However, whenever the rare solar eclipse did occur, Bakunawa was seen in the sky as taking a risk to try to eat the sun.
The other serpentine dragons similar to Bakunawa in other parts of the Philippines were Laho, the Tagalogs dragon, and Naga to the Maranaos, Maguindanaos and Samas. These beliefs in the dragons who cause eclipses still persists today and is believed in by many in the Philippines where the tradition of making loud noises is still practiced.
Another popular creature, though lesser known than Bakunawa, is Minokawa, a giant bird sometimes seen as an eagle that comes from the Bagobo folklore. It is described as being a large bird the size of the island of Bohol or the island of Negros (Buglas) that’s beak and claws are like steel, its feathers as sharp as swords, and its eyes reflect like mirrors. It was believed that Minokawa lived outside the sky in the eastern horizon, where it would chase the moon and sometimes the sun.
To the Maranao there was another creature called the Arimaonga, a big lion that was believed to cause the lunar and solar eclipse.
Photo Credits:
- Meeting the Minokawa by Mark Lester Celozar
- “Bakunawa at Minokawa” A retelling of the Philippine Mythological Dragons’ Legend using Street Art" mural by @gerilya
- Bakunawa by virtviuz
