Bakunawa

The Bakunawa, also spelled Bakonawa, Baconaua, or Bakonaua, is a dragon in Philippine mythology that is often represented as a gigantic sea serpent. It is believed to be the cause of eclipses. It appears as a 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.

Mythology
Tales about the Bakunawa say that it is the cause of eclipses. During ancient times, Filipinos believe that there are seven moons created by Bathala to light up the sky. The Bakunawa, amazed by their beauty, would rise from the ocean and swallow the moons whole, angering Bathala and causing them to be mortal enemies.

To keep the Bakunawa moons from completely being swallowed, ancient Filipinos would go out of their homes with pans and pots, and would make noise in order to scare the Bakunawa into spitting out the moon back into the sky. Some of the people in the villages would play soothing sounds with their musical instruments, in hopes that the dragon would fall into a deep sleep. Thus, the brave men of the village hoped that while the dragon was hypnotized by the musical sounds they could somehow slay the dragon. Although the dragon was known as a "moon eater" it was also known as a "man eater".

Other tales tell that the Bakunawa has a sister in the form of a sea turtle. The sea turtle would visit a certain island in the Philippines in order to lay its eggs. However, locals soon discovered that every time the sea turtle went to shore, the water seemed to follow her, thus reducing the island's size. Worried that their island would eventually disappear, the locals killed the sea turtle.

When the Bakunawa found out about this, it arose from the sea and ate the moon. The people were afraid so they prayed to Bathala to punish the creature. Bathala refused but instead told them to bang some pots and pans in order to disturb the serpent. The moon is then regurgitated while the Bakunawa disappeared, never to be seen again.

The island where the sea turtle lays its eggs is said to exist today. Some sources say that the island might just be one of the Turtle Islands.

Others tell how the Bakunawa fell in love with a human girl in one of the native tribes. The head of the tribe found out about their affair and had their house burned to ashes. The Bakunawa, finding out about this, became immersed in anger and tried to take revenge by eating all the 7 moons. When the Bakunawa was about to eat the last one, Bathala took action and punished the Bakunawa by banishing it from its home away from the sea. It also tells that the reason of the eclipses is how the Bakunawa is trying to come back to its home and deceased family.

Other versions
black ocean and swallow one of the moons whole once every one hundred years, thus leading to eclipses and earthquakes. This angered Bathala and thus, the two are longtime enemies.

Six centuries later, when there was only one moon left, the Bakunawa was tempting to eat the last one and if it does, eclipses would darken the night, making it even harder to see and earthquakes would shake the world. The ancient Filipinos knew they had to do something or else the world would be gone. Finally, they thought up of an idea. The Bakunawa is scared of loud noises so all of the ancient Filipinos gathered some pots and pans and they all ran towards the ocean.

Soon, the Bakunawa leaped out of the ocean, pointing towards the last moon and locked its jaws around it. When the Bakunawa's teeth grabbed hold of the seventh moon, the ancient Filipinos started to bang their pots and pans and they would shout and yell and started to bang loud drums. The Bakunawa got so scared, that it spat out the seventh moon just as it was about to swallow it whole and crashed towards the ocean. The Filipinos then cheered and Bathala looked over the people smiling that his mortal enemy has finally been defeated.

From then on, once every century, the Filipinos would bring their pots, pans and drums and would shout and yell to scare the Bakunawa and protected the seventh moon as Bathala looked over, happy for the people.

Appearance
Bakunawa is said to be an water dwelling serpent-like dragon that lived in a pitch black ocean. Not only does the Bakunawa wants to eat the moons because of the moons' beauty, but also to illuminate the ocean but their light dims every one hundred years.

Bakunawa is sometimes described to even have front limbs or wings or both but is always depicted as a sea serpent-like dragon with a mouth the size of a large lake, a bright red tongue, whiskers, gills and small wires at its sides. Its color depends on how its legend is told but is mostly white, dark blue or red.