Bakunawa

Lola's story

When I was a girl in Manila, the moon disappeared one night. First a bite, then half, then nearly all of it. The whole street came outside. Our neighbor banged a kaldero with a spoon, my brother banged a kawali, and my Lola shouted up at the sky, "Ibalik mo ang buwan!" Give back the moon!

"Who took it?" I asked.

"The bakunawa," she said. "A sea serpent so big he can reach the sky. He loves the moon so much that he tries to swallow it. But he hates noise. So we all make noise together, and he spits it back out."

And it worked! The moon came back, a little at a time, and everybody cheered.

Years later, in Queens, there was an eclipse over our building. I took out my pots and pans, and Kuya, Didi and Chun took them out too. The neighbors looked out of their windows, and soon the whole building was banging. Kuya told me it's really the Earth's shadow. "I know," I said. "But it's more fun this way, di ba?"

What people say

The bakunawa comes from the old stories of the Visayas and Bicol. People say he is a giant sea serpent who lives in the deep sea and loves the moon. Long ago, the stories say, there were seven moons in the sky, and the bakunawa swallowed six of them. The last moon is the one we still see, and people have watched over it ever since.

Whenever the moon starts to disappear in an eclipse, people run outside and bang pots, pans and drums until the bakunawa is startled into spitting it out. Tagalog people told of a moon-swallower called Laho, and naglaho still means "it disappeared". Kids in the Philippines even play a chasing game named after him.

How to stay safe

The moon is the only one who needs to worry. If it starts to disappear, grab a pot and a spoon, call your neighbors, and make as much noise as you can. That's bayanihan: everybody helping together.