Category Archives: Myths

Sacred narratives

Filipino Eclipse Myth

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 5 April 2019
Primary Language: English
Language: Filipino

Text

Informant: This one is one of the horror folklore. Like, the majority of what I chose was the horror folklore cause that was basically what I was taught. So this is Bakunawa. It’s basically a giant moon eating serpant.

Interviewer: Oh… okay.

Informant: He was basically the duwata of the underworld, and duwata’s basically… a rough translation to English is basically deity. He was the deity of the underworld and he kind of admired the seven moons and… I don’t know why we had seven moons, but the seven moons in the Philippines were basically, like, gods, I guess. So Bakunawa was kind of, like, enthralled by the beauty of the moon, so uh, he transformed into this giant serpant with one wing of a dragon and one smaller wing in the background. He had, like, catfish tendrils coming out of his face. He had a mouth the size of a lake to swallow up the moon.

Interviewer: Oh, wow.

Informant: Buit, and, so, in the Phillipines, when we have eclipses, we believe it was Bakunawa, that’s, like, eating up the moon. That’s why we have eclipses.

Interviewer: Really?

Informant: Yeah, but, Bathala, the… like, basically, our Jesus, um, prevented him from doing it, and any time Bakunawa attempts to try to eat the moon again, um, the Filipino’s would drive him off by… by smacking cans and other metal things to create sound to scare him off, or they would play music and kind of like, making him fall into some kind of eternal sleep. And for Bathala, he took offence to Bakanawa for eating the moon… well, attempting to eat the moon, so he cursed Bakanawa into maintaining that form for the rest of eternity.

 

Context– The informant is a young man who immigrated from the Philippines to the U.S. at a young age. Although he is Catholic, he grew up hearing about the native folklore and mythology of the Philippines from members of his family as a way to preserve their heritage.

 

Analysis– Like the informant said, this myth was most likely created to explain solar eclipses. When the moon begins blocking the sun, the gradual covering could make it seem as though something is swallowing the sun. The banging of the metal can probably be attributed to the temporary nature of eclipses. Because the people had to explain why the eclipse ended, they attributed it to noise they made. Due to the celestial nature of a giant creature swallowing the sun, the occurrence of Bathala, a Philippines creation God, in this myth could be attributed to the combination of the stories in order to create a singular mythology.

Devil Sightings on Horse at Night – Mexico

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA/ Georgia
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

KF: People have tales of like because uh Mexico is like predominantly like Catholic um…people say that like they’ve seen the devil on like their horse- on his horse…like just like galloping like if you stay up really really late at night, you’ll see him like come through like the town or something.

 

Background:

Location of story – predominantly Mexico, according to informant

Location of Performance – Interviewer’s dormitory room, Los Angeles, CA, night

 

Context: This performance took place in a group setting – about 2-3 people – in a college dormitory room. This performance was prompted by the call for stories about beliefs, ghosts, or superstitions as examples of folklore via a group message. KF approached me two days prior to this interview, but schedules did not allow for a recording until she came to ask a homework and remembered. I am good friends with KF. This story followed one of KF’s previously about La Llorona.

 

Analysis: It is interesting to note that the devil only appears late at night. In Catholic tradition, one is always at risk to sin and the Devil, but for some reason, these monsters only seem to reveal themselves at night. In Mathias Clasen’s article “Monsters Evolve: A Biocultural Approach to Horror Stories,” Paul Shepard is quoted as saying, “our fear of monsters in the night probably has its origins far back in the evolution of our primate ancestors, whose tribes were pruned by horrors whose shadows continue to elicit our monkey screams in dark theaters” (Clasen 1). In other words, tradition has conditioned us to believe that the night brings about supernatural activity. This phenomenon can possibly be explained by a communal need to feel protected from evils, such as the Devil, by having times dedicated to explore and be free and then times dedicated to retreat and hide.

 

Additional Reading:

Clasen, Mathias. “Monsters Evolve: A Biocultural Approach to Horror Stories.” Review of General Psychology, vol. 16, no. 2, June 2012, pp. 222–229, doi:10.1037/a0027918.

Shepard, Paul. The others: How animals made us human. Island Press, 1997.

The Stone Ñusta (Princess) of Pisac

Nationality: Peruvian
Age: 50
Occupation: Spanish Teacher
Residence: St. Petersburg, FL
Performance Date: 2/5/19
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English, Russian

Original
“Okay, esta es la historia de una princesa, una Anusta Inca, y esta es la historia de donde es la abuelita, toda la familia de tu abuelita Elva, de Pisac.

Hay un cerro a que le dicen Apu, que decian que era el protector del pueblo, Pisac. La princesa, hija del ese entoces, el principe, el rey de esa zona, Inca, era unica hija. Y le dijeron que el unico que se podia casar con ella era el que construiera un puente de piedra en una sola noche, en el Rio Vivilcanota que esta a la orilla del cerro del Apu. La condicion era de que ella tenia que subir el cerro toda la noche mientras el novio construia el puente de piedra en el rio.

Mientras ella subiera, no podia mirar para atras. El el momento que ella mirara para atras, todo se convertia en piedra. El tenia que construir el puente, y ella tenia que subir el cerro. Esa era la condicion para que se pudieran casar.

Entonces, el principe que era del otro pueblo, y que el matrimonio de ellos iba a constituir la allianza de los dos pueblos, estaba muy enamorado de ella y dijo que el iba a intentar de hacer el puente en una noche. Entonces en la noche que el estaba haciendo el puente, el estaba casi casi terminando, y dice la leyenda que todo el mundo le silvaba, que ella escuchaba como que la gente la llamaba por su nombre y que le silvaba y ella no podia voltear. Pero cuando ya se estaba amaneciendo, ella sintio que alguien la llamaba mucho mucho mucho, penso que ya podia voltear porque ya estaba amaneciendo, y el todavia no habia terminado el puente. Y entonces cuando volteo, todo se volvio de piedra.

Entonces cuando tu te vas al pueblo de tu abuelita, tu ves a una princesa, que es como una formacion de roca y de piedra, y tu ves unas rocas en el rio, como si se hubiera hecho un puente que no se ha terminado, ya l final, una roca grande que dicen que es la estatua del principe.”

Translation
“Okay, this is the story of a princess, an Anusta Inca, and this is the story from where your grandmother is from, and your whole grandmother’s family, in Pisac.

There is a hill that they called Apu, and they say that it was the protector of the village Pisac. The princess, the daughter of this, at the time, prince or king of the Inca village, was an only child. And they told her that the only man that she could marry was a man who could build a bridge made of stone in just one night, in the river Vivilcanota at the shore of the Apu hill. The only condition was that she also had to climb the mountain all night, while the fiancé built the stone bridge at the river.

While she climbed she could not look behind her. The moment she looked behind her, everything would turn into stone. He had to build the bridge and she had to climb the range, that was the condition so that they could marry.

So, the prince who was from a neighboring village, and the matrimony of these two would constitute the alliance of the two villages, was very enamored by her and said that he would try to make the bridge in one night. So at night when he was making the bridge, he was almost almost done, and the legend says that everyone was calling her and whistling at her. And that, she would hear people calling her name and whistling and she could not turn around. But when the sun was rising, she heard someone calling her a lot a lot a lot, and she thought that she could turn around now because it was already a new day… but he had not finished building the bridge yet. And so when she turned around, everything turned into stone.

So when you go to your grandmothers village you see a princess, who is like a rock formation made of stone, And you see some rocks at the river, as if someone had made a bridge and had not finished it, and at the end of that, you see a big rock that they say is the statue of the prince.”

Context: The informant is my mother, a Peruvian woman whose parents both come from villages near Cuzco, Peru. She grew up in Lima, the capital and the most metropolitan city in Peru. Peruvian culture, however, is deeply rooted in pride about their myths and legends, and these forms of folklore are widely known. I actually inquired about Inca creation myths on my own, but realized that this is a prime example of folklore.

Analysis: I spotted some of Propp’s functions in this myth, as well as some of the classic elements of myths, as this is a fairly traditional structure for a myth just with a bit more detail.

Kalo: A Staple Plant of Hawaii

Nationality: Hawaiian American
Age: 20
Occupation: NA
Residence: Hawaii
Performance Date: April 22, 2019
Primary Language: English
Language: NA

Abstract: Kalo is a plant that is named after the stillborn of Sky Father (Wakea) and Mother Earth (Papa), two Hawaiian entities. Kalo is a main staple for Hawaiians culturally, but is mostly used for food. When born, Kalo was a stillborn, and his parents buried him in the ground. His mother was so sad that she began to cry and, from her tears hitting the soil, the plant, Kalo, began to grow where her son was buried. Kalo is used in many traditional Hawaiian dishes and serves as a symbol for respecting the earth.

 

Background: DM is a 20 year-old Hawaiian American going to college in California. She grew up her entire life in Hawaii and is very accustomed to the folklore there. She can not trace back the origin of the folklore or when she learned it because it has surrounded her for her entire life. After one piece of Hawaiian folklore came up on a work retreat, I asked her to share the most important ones to her on a later date.

Kalo:

DM: Kalo is the origin of so many Hawaiian things, but mostly for food. There’s lau lau, which is the pig roast that is wrapped in Kalo, and poi which is this purple paste made out of Kalo. Both are like traditionally Hawaiian. So anyways, there are these two entity things, Sky Father and Mother Earth. Wakea and Papa. They have human children somehow I don’t know (laughs), but Kalo was the name of one of their children who died when he was born. Then Papa buried the stillborn and she was so sad about it that she cried, and her tears went into the soil. Then, out came Kalo.

S: Does anything happen if you disrespect the Kalo?

DM: The earth is everything to us. I don’t know. Bad harvest maybe.

 

Interpretation: The connection between Kalo being a product of nature (the sky and the earth) and also a main food staple showcases the connection that the Hawaiian people have with nature. Not only do they rely on nature for their mythological origin stories, but they directly connect it to their survival. The story of Kalo can be used to demonstrate that Mother Earth went through a lot of pain in order to provide food in kalo. Since she went through so much pain to feed the people, Hawaiians should be respectful to her and thank her by taking care of the land. This thought process is demonstrated when DM states “the earth is everything to us.” The origin stories reflect this close relationship to the planet that Hawaiians share. Since the foundations of being Hawaiian are to respect the planet, the main stories on which people grow up on encapsulate this mindset and ingrain it in the minds of the youth.

 

Pele: The Hawaiian Volcano Goddess

Nationality: Hawaiian American
Age: 20
Occupation: NA
Residence: Hawaii
Performance Date: April 22, 2019
Primary Language: English
Language: NA

Abstract: Pele (pell-ay) is the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes. The reason this is both a myth and a legend is because the story takes place in both the real world and outside of it. The origin story of how volcanoes in Hawaii came to be and the fact that Pele is a goddess and acts sort of like Greek Gods reason that she is mythological. However, she is a shapeshifter that normally takes the place of an older woman on Earth, so this would make her a legend.

 Background: DM is a 20 year-old  Hawaiian American going to college in California. She grew up her entire life in Hawaii and is very accustomed to the folklore there. She can not trace back the origin of the folklore or when she learned it because it has surrounded her for her entire life. After one piece of Hawaiian folklore came up on a work retreat, I asked her to share the most important ones to her on a later date. DM compares the Hawaiian gods, like Pele, to Greek mythology. They all have their own responsibility on Earth. She dives into the effects of what Pele can do from a story from her father. 

About Pele:

 DM: She is the goddess of volcanoes and takes many forms, but her most common form is an old Hawaiian lady. For context, the only volcano that has a chance of erupting is Kileaua on the big island. Anyway, my dad’s cousin was getting married there, and they were driving home from some party or something a few days before the wedding. And on the main highway, they see this old Hawaiian lady with long gray hair walking on the side. They thought maybe it was Pele, but they were scared so just kept driving. And then on their wedding day, the volcano erupted.

S: So is she someone to be scared of in person like does she cause immediate danger in human form?

DM: Well, I mean, she is a fiery goddess, but she isn’t dangerous. But like you’re supposed to be nice to her, and when they didn’t pick her up she reacted. There are some legends that when a volcano erupts, the lava will go around houses of people who have been nice to her.

S: But like, how do you tell her apart from any other old Hawaiian woman?

DM: You don’t.

 

Interpretation: Pele seems to have undeniable power and garners a lot of respect from the people of Hawaii. The lesson underlying this goddess is to respect your elders. Especially when told to young kids, Pele seems like a mean old lady that can destroy your house and kill you in a fiery pool of lava if you do not show kindness. Since no one really knows what she actually looks like, the people of Hawaii must learn to be nice to all elderly women or possibly suffer the consequences. This portrays Hawaii to be matrilineal and caring of the females, especially the elders, in the community. If Pele was only a myth, there would be no real lesson to treat elders with respect. Since she take the form of an old lady, and, at this point, becomes a legend, citizens will apply the respectful manner to almost all old women to not take any chances of having a really bad day with some lava.

 

For more on Pele, see Legends and Myths of Hawaii by David Kalākaua, 1888, page 46.

 

Kalakaua, David. Legends and Myths of Hawaii. Book On Demand Ltd, 2013.