Why Do the Moon and Stars Appear Only at Night?

A long time ago, when the universe was still young, the sun and the moon were married to each other. One
day, the moon asked her husband, the sun, to keep watch over their sleeping children, since she had to gather
food for the family. The moon, reminded her husband not to go near the young ones, for they would get
burned by his intense noon day heat.

The sun, however, couldn’t keep from bending over to kiss the little ones – but as his wife had feared, the
children slowly started to melt. Although the sun wanted to hide from his wife, his brightness always gave
him away. His wife, the moon, became cold to him and endlessly blamed him for deforming their children. She
often harped about his self-centeredness and feelings of self-importance, just because the entire universe
revolved around him.

This occurred until one day, the sun's fiery temper got the better of him – he struck his wife's face to stop her
endless nagging. Again, he felt sorry for having done so, since his action had left the moon with scars and
pockmarks on her face.

Since then, the moon and the sun became estranged, and the former took her children with her as far as she
could, to get away from the sun. She and the children showed up only during the night when everyone was
asleep, so they wouldn’t notice the pockmarks on her surface or the imperfection of her children, the little
twinkling stars.

Why Does a Rainbow Appear After a Drizzle?

One day, a woodsman found a beautiful star fairy lying unconscious near the river bend. He discovered that
her wings were broken and readily surmised that she must have fallen unconscious upon hitting the ground.
The woodsman brought her home and did everything he could to nurse her back to life. The star fairy finally
regained consciousness and thanked the woodsman for saving her life.

However, she was still weak and her wings were still broken, although the woodcutter improvised some form
of brace to help the wings heal properly. Months passed and the inevitable happened, the woodsman and the
star fairy fell in love with each other. The lovers decided to get married so they could raise a family and have
children.

But alas, the day came when the fairy’s wings started fluttering on its own, so the woodsman had to remove
the improvised braces. As soon as the wings became free, the star fairy was carried off to high heavens and
the woodsman never saw his beloved star fairy again. He was so devastated that each day he went to the river
bend, hoping that his wife would be there with her wings once again broken.

The star fairy was back at the star kingdom and could see her beloved husband pining every day for her at the
river bend. However, the king had taken away her wings as her punishment for straying too far away from the
kingdom. She can only have them back if she learns how to behave like a real star fairy.

One day, the king chanced upon the beautiful fairy crying and looking forlorn as she watched the river bend
below. Looking down, he also saw the woodsman near the river bend who was also looking equally forlorn
and with tears streaming down his face. Now the star king couldn’t stand the sight of the lovers' hopeless
situation but the union between an Earth creature and a star fairy is strictly forbidden and impossible.

The king finally came up with a bright idea; he stretched out the tails of his multi-colored g-string (this is not
the risqué version) so that it would hang down until it formed an arch that would reach the river bend. He
told the star fairy that she could go down via the multi-colored arch to visit her beloved woodsman but only
for a few minutes. Otherwise, the arch would disappear and she could never go back. If she stayed too long on
Earth she will become a mortal and will soon die. It turned out that the fairy is already more than a thousand
years old, basing on Earth’s life period.
Therefore, if you see a rainbow after a brief rain shower, it means the star king took pity on the lovers again
and had let down the tails of his colorful g-string. The drizzle is actually the star fairy’s tears, while the
woodsman called the multi-colored arch “bahag hari" or the king’s g-strings.
 Why Does the Philippines Have 7,000 Islands?

At a time when there was only a single great mass of land between the great sky and an equally great
water, a large prehistoric bird got bored of circling around the same area for millions of years. It had
made several attempts to fly as far as it could, to discover what lies beyond the far horizons. However, the
big bird was always forced to go back, because there was no other land on where he could rest his tired
wings.
One day, the bird came up with a clever idea. The scheming bird told the water that the sky was irritated
by the way the water keeps on copying the sky’s hue. If it decides to don a blue color, then water also
becomes blue, if the sky is clear and white, the water becomes clear and neutral too. The sky hates it the
most that the water imitates even the former’s dark mood, because the water also turns gray and
somewhat murky. Water of course became indignant upon hearing this; and it heaved a deep breath to
which great amounts of water rose up in the form of gigantic waves, high enough to reach the sky and fill
its clouds with water.
The sky was puzzled at the water’s behavior because it seemed that it was intentionally pelting the sky.
The scheming bird approached the sky and told the latter that the water was resenting the fact that the sky
often made the decisions on what color they had to have. Even if water wants to try other colors, the sky
keeps on reflecting itself on the water’s surface.
Sky, of course, was furious upon hearing this that it let out loud roars of thunder and flashes of lightning
that hit not only water but also the large mass of land. It drained out all the waters carried in its clouds
while water continued to pelt huge waves against the sky. All these affected the great mass of land
because it slowly softened and weakened as sky and water fought against each other’s might.
Soon enough, the great mass of land started to break into little pieces much to the delight of the big bird.
Sky and water saw what had happened, and as a result stopped fighting and tried with all their might to
bring back the pieces of land together. It was too late because there were about 7,000 pieces of land that
were too far away from the main land. The bird of course finally fulfilled his wish of travelling far and
wide, beyond the horizons.
Continue reading on page 2 for more of the myths, folklores and legends of the Philippines.

 Hudhud Hi Aliguyon (The Tales of Aliguyon)

In the mountainous hinterlands of Northern Luzon, a young boy named Aliguyon was raised well by his
father and he grew up to become a smart and intelligent leader. He also had the skills and prowess of a
brave and stalwart warrior that children of the villages often looked up to him as a role model.
Now their tribe had a long standing feud over territorial boundaries, with another tribe in another
mountain. To settle it once and for all, Aliguyon challenged the leader of the other tribe to a duel.
However, the leader did not accept the challenge personally but his son, Pumbakhayon did, since he was
an exact match to Aliguyon’s capabilities.
Thus, the two warriors faced each other in a battle they were not prepared for. To Aliguyon’s surprise, his
adversary was as skilled and adept as he was. Accordingly, there was only one spear used because
Aliguyon’s initial attempt to slay Pumbakhayon with a single but powerful thrust of his spear was not
successful. Pumbakhayon was able to catch the spear and used the same weapon by throwing it to
Aliguyon with an equally forceful might. The latter had no other course of action but to catch his spear
and hurl it once more to his opponent.
This duel lasted for three days with nothing transpiring but the swift exchanges of hurls using only a
single spear. On the third day, the two young men decided to stop the senseless exercise and agreed to
talk things over. It became obvious to both of them that they were equals in every aspect despite
belonging to a different tribe. They have come to respect each other’s skills and intelligence, thus
realizing they are capable of settling their issues wisely. Therefore, the duel ended in a treaty and the two
young men became close friends.
Their tribes and the people all lived harmoniously and peacefully. They emulated their leaders as they
settled their differences by recognizing that each tribal member deserves to be accorded with respect
regardless of tribe or stature.

Why Do Pineapple Fruits Have Many Eyes?

There was once a pretty little girl called Piña, who was loved dearly by her mother to the point of spoiling
her. As Piña grew older, she had become lazy, inconsiderate and self-centered. Yet the mother didn’t
mind her daughter’s behavior, because she wanted Piña to depend on her forever.
One day, the mother fell ill and could not bring herself to cook food for Piña, while the young girl kept
complaining that she was hungry. This time, Piña's mother had to stay firm for the young gril's sake. On
the other hand, Piña forced herself to go to the kitchen, grumbling and resentful that her mother was sick.
The girl half-heartedly set out to cook “lugaw" or rice porridge the way her mother instructed her.
While in the kitchen, Piña kept asking where her mother kept the things she needed.
“Mother, where is the rice keeper?" The mother had to shout her answer several times over because Piña
took ages before she could find whatever it was she was looking for.
“Mother, where are the woods for the stove?"
“Mother, where’s the soup ladle?"
Mother, where’s the salt?"
Mother where’s the bowl?"
Note that to all of Piña’s questions, the sick mother had to shout at the top of her lungs, which only made
her feel worse. Feeling weak and exasperated with Piña’s unending questions, the mother finally lost her
temper and let out a curse: “Heaven forbid child! But I call on all the gods to put eyes all over your face
so you can see the things you’re looking for." Tired and weak Piña’s mother fell asleep.
When the mother woke up, the house was dark and quiet. She called Piña but there was no answer. The
mother willed herself to investigate where Piña could be, but the mother only found the unfinished
cooking task. The mother was saddened by the thought that Piña decided to leave her, because she was
sick and could no longer take care of her daughter.
As she was about to leave the kitchen, she tripped on something that was lying on the floor, all the while
thinking that it was one of Piña’s many things. She picked up the strange looking object, which was
shaped like a human head with tufts of leaves atop its crown.
The mother had an uncanny feeling that the brown circles scattered all over the object reminded her of
Piña’s beautiful brown eyes. Horrified, the mother remembered that she let out a terrible curse on her
daughter before she fell asleep – in fact, she called on all the gods to put eyes all over Piña’s face. Thus,
the strange looking fruit was called “pinya" or pineapple, since Piña simply vanished into thin air.

The Visayan Creation Myth

Visayan is the largest ethnic group in Philippines. Their creation myth explains how the
Sun, the Moon, the islands, and human beings were formed.
A long time ago, there were two Gods - Maguayan, ruler of water, and Kaptan, ruler of the sky.
One day, the two Gods decided to marry their children. Three sons were born from this union -
Likalibutan was extremely brave and strong, Liadlao was made of gold and was always
cheerful, and Libulan, made of copper, was timid and weak. Lisuga was the only daughter, she
was made of silver and was very beautiful, gentle and sweet. Sadly, they were orphaned at a
young age, but their grandparents took care of them and protected them from evil. Eventually,
the siblings grew up to be strong and beautiful.

One day, Likalibutan, proud of his strength and power, decided to attack Kaptan's sky kingdom.
Scared of their brother, Liadlao and Libulan were coerced into joining him and they left for the
sky kingdom. An enormous steel gate was blocking their way, but Likalibutan summoned the
wind and knocked it down. When Kaptan came to know of this, he got furious and fired them
with lightning bolts. A lightning bolt landed on each of the three brothers. Likalibutan's rock-like
body fragmented into a thousand pieces and fell down in the sea, Liadlao and Libulan melted
into balls of gold and copper, respectively. Worried for her brothers, Lisuga came searching for
them, but Kaptan, still fuming, attacked her as well. Her silver body too, was scattered into a
million pieces. Kaptan then called Maguayan, accusing him of planning the whole thing. But
Maguayan had been sleeping through the entire ordeal and didn't have the slightest clue.
Kaptan eventually calmed down, and both the gods deeply mourned the loss of their
grandchildren. Sadly, even with all their powers, they couldn't bring the siblings to life. So, they
gave each of them light, except for Likalibutan. Luminous with this light, Liadlao became the
Sun, Libulan, the Moon and Lisuga's fragmented body can be seen today as the stars.

Kaptan planted a seed on a fragment of Likalibutan's body. A bamboo tree sprouted out of this
seed and from this tree, Sikalak, a man and Sikabay, a woman, emerged. This man and woman
are the ancestors of all the people in the world.