Hugging The Tree

Mythical Parallels

The myth of the Ancient Philippines had some distinct similarities to other myths shared in the class. Especially the native american myths. They all began with just the sea and the sky, and eventually land was created through the events of the myth.

Another similarity was that the land or part of the earth was made out from some form of a body, like in the Norse myth when the giants body became the earth, and when Licalibutan was struck by lightning and fell into the sea and became the land.

Some of the larger ideas behind the myths also coincide with other myths, like family conflict. The sun moon stars and land were all created because Captan shot all his grandchildren with lightning, as there was family conflict in the Babylonian myth.

The Creation Myth of the Ancient Philippines

In the very beginning there was just the water and the sky. Everything was pitch black, there was no sun, no moon, and no stars. There were two gods that ruled the water and the sky. Maguayan was the god of water and Captan was the god of the sky.

Captan had a son, Lihangin, who was in control of the winds; ad Maguayan had a daughter, Lidagat, who ruled the sea. Both Captan and Maguayan agreed that they should marry, and they did. Lihangin and Lidagat had three sons and one daughter.

Licalibutan, the oldest son, was always brave and mad. Libulan was the middle son; he was made of gold and was always happy. The youngest son, Liadlao, was made of copper and was weak. Lisuga was the daughter, she was very beautiful, made of silver, and was very gentle.

After a while, Lihangin and Lidagat died, and the power of the winds was left to the oldest son, Licalibutan. Their grandfathers, Captan and Maguayan were left to take care of them.

After a while Licalibutan grew envious of Captan for his power over the sky, as he was growing bored with just having the winds. He convinced his brothers to come with him on his attack, as Libulan didn’t want to upset him and Liadlao was too scared to disagree.

They rushed up to the sky and were met with the huge gate that guards Captan’s kingdom, and none of them could push or pull it open no matter how hard they tried. Eventually Licalibutan let out the most powerful wind he or his father, Lihangin, had ever created, which broke down the gate to Captan’s kingdom.

 

They went in and Captan was so enraged at the intrusion he immediately sent out three bolts of lightning at them.  Libulan was the first to get struck, his gold body melted down into a ball. The same happened to Liadlao. Licalibutan was struck last and his body, being made of stone, didn’t melt, but was shattered into many different pieces. The remains of his body fell down to the sea, and became the land.

Lisuga was all alone, and after a while missed her brothers and went to go searching for them. She went to the sky and saw the busted gate and decided to go inside to see if they were there. Captan was still infatuated with his anger he didn’t stop to see who was coming, he just shot another bolt of lightning at the approaching figure.

Upon being struck, the beautiful Lisuga was shattered into a thousand pieces, which spread out across the sky. Captan was still in such a rage that he went down to the sea looking for Maguayan, as he thought he was the one behind the attack.

Maguayan was able to calm down Captan after a while, and they both realized that it was Licalibutan who had planned the assault.

In order to remember their grandchildren in a proper way, they gave each one a bright light that would shine forever. Libulan, made of gold, became the sun. Liadlao, made of copper, became the moon, and Lisuga, made of all those thousands of shards of silver, became all the stars in the sky.

Licalibutan was the only one who didn’t receive the gift of light. Instead, they made his body support the race of human beings, and that is how human came into the world with the sun, moon and stars. 

My Ritual

Two years ago I was sitting home on a regular, boring old night flipping through the channels when I came across the Avalanche and Red Wings game. I had never enjoyed hockey and I could never imagine actually watching it, but for whatever reason I stayed on the channel and kept watching. It happened that I watched the whole game and the overtime and the ensuing shootout.

Since that fateful day I haven't stopped watching Hockey and I watch every game I can see. Every day I play at least one game of NHL 12 on my xbox. I usually play after lunch or after my classes before I start my homework and sometimes after dinner/before bed. It is a rare day that I don't play or watch some type of hockey and th next day is always spent catching up on my losses.

First Memory

I was 5. It was first time at Disney Land/World, whichever one happens to be in Florida. It was the first family vacation we had taken outside of Colorado, my first plane ride, all that stuff. My mother was pregnant at the time with my soon to be twin siblings and spent the majority of the time in the hotel by herself, relaxing and watching tv.

I was looking at the map of Disney World the night before and saw that there was a place where you could actually meet Winnie the Pooh, my absolute favorite bear for my entire childhood; and I was going to meet him in real life, I was going to talk to the real Winnie the Pooh.

The part of the park that Winnie was in didnt open till 10:00, two hours after the rest of the park opened. I told my dad that we had to get there early so that we could be first to meet Winnie. I wouldn't do anything else until I met Winnie, that was my top priority.

My dad and I got up at about 7:00, ate breakfast and took the tram over to Disney World, and managed to get to the gate where Winnie was at around 8:30, and waited. We waited and waited and waited until 10:00. By that time the whole walkway up to the gate was crammed with people and I was ready to sprint to the sun to meet Winnie.

Then it came, someone came to open the gate, and my feet just started going and going and wouldnt stop till I met Winnie. It seemed like forever, a few people passed me, but then everyone was gone. They had all taken a sharp left to go to Splash Mountian. Literally all of them. It was only me and my Dad that kept going straight to meet Winnie. I got to spend about two hours with him before we had to meet my mom for lunch, and that was how i spent every morning at Disney World, running to see Winnie the Pooh for a few hours before lunch.