New Deities from the Philippines Alert!🇵🇭✨️
If you didn't see my stories on Instagram @ thepinaywriter or don't follow me on Instagram, I'm currently reading through and compiling all the data on folklore, beliefs, and practices from every province, municipality, barangay, and sitio in the Philippines from the documents in the "Historical Data, Philippines (Executive Order 486, 1951)."
It's a long and daunting task, but I absolutely LOVE it, being the research freak that I am. The Historical Data, Philippines are a list of documents written in 1951 that were collected by Filipino President Quirino in his Executive Order 486 to collect all the historical and cultural data from every province and municipality, in the effort to keep and preserve these records and knowledge right after the destruction of World War II in the Philippines.
Currently, I'm working on the Western Bisayas, which includes the islands of Panay, Guimaras, and Buglas (old name of Negros). Still going through the different areas in Panay, starting with the provinces of Aklan and Capiz, then making my way to Antique and Iloilo next.
While going through the docs, I have found a lot of new folklore that you can't find anywhere else on the internet. I've found what once was an epic in Aklan and several new deities in Aklan and Capiz.
Today, I wanted to highlight these two goddesses from Capiz and their creation myth.
In the Capiznon creation myth, the doc written by locals in Malonoy, Dao, Capiz mentions that Bathala created the world with the dew he sat on. It was then the two goddesses, Ulana and Inita, the goddesses of rain and weather, who created the first plants and trees after the land, mountains, and caves were formed.
Ulana, coming from the word ulan (rain) and Inita from init (heat). Which, to be fair makes a whole lot of sense when it comes to creating plants and trees.
Ulana and Inita are also mentioned again in the data from Aganan, Dao, Capiz, which is where I first saw their names. For now, these are the only 2 records I've seen mentioning them, but I am only about half way done going through the records in Aklan and Capiz (Aklan was a part of Capiz in 1951, which is why I'm going through both at the same time). We shall see if I find them mentioned anywhere else.
Also mentioned in Capiznon folklore, is that the moon and sun were lovers and married, with the stars being their relatives. The reason for an eclipse, besides bakunawa, was that the moon and sun were embracing each other.
In the doc from Malonoy, you can see some influences of Christianity already there in 1951, with the mention of Satan sending lightning from hell. This is the first I've come across that mention, as the majority of docs in Aklan and Capiz say that lightning was caused by a type of cat like creature that zips through the sky and leaves scratches and teeth marks on trees, etc when lightning hits.
This doc also mentions an interesting belief regarding twins. Typically, it's believed that eating twin bananas will cause a woman to deliver twins. However, in Malonoy it mentions something a little different. That a woman has two "bags" and that when the spirit enters into both of them, she will have twins. I wonder if it was their way of explaining how women have 2 ovaries and if a woman releases 2 eggs at the same time from both ovaries during ovulation, it can cause twins?
Can't wait to dig deeper and to see if I can find more deities, beliefs, and folklore. ✨️
Everything that I'm compiling will be written as an e-book called Folklore & Beliefs: The Western Bisayas, and published soon. I will then move on to a different location next. Maybe Cebu? Bikol? Ilocos? Pangasinan? We'll see.
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