Bakunawa

Bakunawa is the goddess that guards the afterlife (Sulad)
for the Visayans she is a demon but for the Bicolano she was a deity.



The story of Bakunawa and the seven moons




Of all the creatures of the earth and sea, demons, monsters gods and goddess that coveted the moons, it was Bakunawa the beautiful goddess who was successful in claiming some of them.
She was captivated by the beauty of the moons and transformed
into giant sea serpent (with a mouth the size of a lake, a red tongue, whiskers, gills, small wires at its sides, and two sets of wings, one is large and ash-gray while the other is small and is found further down its body) to swallow the moons. In her mouth she devoured Banolor the moon that associated with archers and hunting, she also devoured Subang and Banilig.The other moons where terrified that their siblings were taken and out of fear Libulan who was the oldest and fairest stuff out his light and hid among the darkness of the cosmos never the shine again because of his fear of being eaten by Bakunawa. Mayari jumped into the sea where she encountered a man who had also jumped into the sea to commit suicide (pag-unong)  was ostracized by his whole village and tribe for being plain skin (mapuraw or un-tattooed) incompetent. Mayari  and the man fell in love upon seeing each other some stories say they lived as husband and wife under the sea (some versions say they went back to the man's village) The night sky now only had Bulan and his lovely sister Haliya who was also the youngest. Bakunawa rose from her domain as a dragon again to devour Bulan, but before she could scoop the boy moon, the death god flew and snatch the moon from the sky. She devoured the last moon Haliya who struggled inside her. Bathala the creator heard the screams of the last moon and intervened, Bakunawa spit out the moon Haliya. Bathala punished Bakunawa, she forever lost her beauty she remained as a monster she had become. He also commanded her not to devour the last moon.

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