Every culture has a story or legend that they use to describe the origin of their tribe. For Filipinos, the tale is about these three princesses who wandered out into a vast nothingness one day and were swallowed up by enormous waves, only to be saved by a mighty bird.
With so many years between then and now, most people would think our beliefs are just fanciful tales from old superstitious times. But in fact, as science has begun to show us more and more just how small this world is--that we're all living on one planet with creatures including plants and oceans that we have yet to explore--and faced with environmental changes through pollution and climate change; these fantastical legends now find more meaning than ever before.
The ancient beliefs of our ancestors can be found in the old creation myths, which are more like poetic stories about how everything was made. Here in the Philippines, many of these tales come from indigenous tribes like the Tagalogs, Ifugaos, Mangyans and many more.
The Tagalog people, for example, believe that their role on earth is to tend to rice plants, while it's the spirits' job to take care of everything else on Earth. The ghosts are like little elves, the creator said to them. You're like helpers and guardians of the rice plantation.
Even with this seemingly simple task, some spirits have gone bad, and they cause disasters--they're also known as engkanto. Some enjoy playing tricks on humans by making them hear noises in the night or seeing things when there's nothing there at all.
For the Filipinos, these stories not only tell of how everything was made, but they also teach a moral lesson about how to behave and what happens when people don't apply what they know.
