Some news: For two days, dragons have been dancing because of the Chinese New Year. And yesterday, it was announced that the Ramadhan has been reset because there was no moon sighting.
But some info: Do you know na maurag talaga ang mga Bikolano mala ta igwa man ining dragon na sadiri? Ang ngaran, Bakunawa. Ang tsismis kan mga gurang, dahil kay Bakunawa kaya sunod-sunod ang atake kan mga Moros sa mga baybayon kan Bikolandia dahil daa kay Bakunawa?
Indeed, Bicolanos have a dragon—not the castle-and-knights type, but a sea dragon/serpent from old stories named Bakunawa, the legendary creature said to eat the moon. So when the moon starts getting “bitten” (aka, when an eclipse happens), the classic folklore explanation is simple: midnight snack time ni Bakunawa.
And because our ancestors were not the “bahala na” type, there’s also an OG anti-dragon protocol: karalampagan. Pots, pans, anything na maribok—pak! bang! clang!—as if the whole barangay is telling Bakunawa: “Dai pwede ‘yan, ibalik mo an bulan!”
Now here’s where the Ramadhan + moon angle enters—ang coastal “word-of-mouth” layer na usually comes with matching serious face from an elder: Some old shoreline stories link moon-watching to seafaring life—because the moon affects visibility, tides, and timing. And in many Muslim communities in Mindanao, the start of Ramadhan is traditionally tied to the sighting of the new moon. So in the folklore remix, people would say: if the moon is “missing” because Bakunawa is eating it, paano na ang moon sighting?
That’s how the rumor-tale goes—Ramadhan needs the moon… but Bakunawa wants it for a midnight snack.
To be clear, this isn’t a clean, footnoted history lecture. This is folklore—the kind that blends sky events, sea fears, and community memory into one dramatic narrative you can almost hear while sitting by the beach at night. But it reveals something real about coastal life: when the ocean is your highway and the moon is your lamp, the sky becomes part of survival—and every strange shadow up there needs an explanation down here.
So next time there’s an eclipse, and someone jokes about Bakunawa chewing on the moon, just remember:
Bicol has a dragon.
The moon has a schedule.
And somewhere in the story universe, they’re fighting over it.
Leave a comment