Family Life
My Library Philippine Culture - Legends, Literature and Life
By Joi Lardizabal
“I
f I could fall Into the sky Do you think time would pass me by?” These lines from Vanessa Carlton’s song “A Thousand Miles” come into my mind as I swiftly typed this article. When I stumbled upon these two very fascinating folk tales, I came to an inevitable yet amusing conclusion: our Filipino ancestors have a story to explain everything. The following short narrations clarify two things about the sky:
Why the Sky is Curved Many, many years ago, when people were innocent, as soon as they died, their souls went directly to heaven. In a short time, heaven became crowded with souls because nearly everyone went there.
30 TAHANAN
Acrylic on canvas painting by: Calixto Quiachon (Marissa Corpus collection)
One day, while God was sitting on his throne, he felt it moved by someone. On looking around, he saw that the souls were pushing towards him because the sky was about to fall. Heimmediately summoned five angels and said to them, “Go at once to the earth and hold up the sky with your heads until I can have it repaired.” Then, God called together all his carpenters and said to them, “Repair the heavens as soon as possible.” The work was done, but it happened that the tallest angel was standing in the center of the group. So because of that, ever since, the sky has been curved.
Why the Sky is High In the early days, when the sky was still low, two brothers named Ingat and Daskol lived with their parents on Earth. As their names indicate, Ingat was very careful in everything he did and was, therefore, his father’s right hand man. He was always helping with the work in the field, and his parents were very pleased with him. So he raised the pestle higher, and every time it hit the sky, the sky was pushed up higher.