Our recent blog post about the (serpent) Bakunawa only tells of the most famous tale. However, our favorite version of the Bakunawa is of the great shark.
The great shark Bakunawa lives in the deepest parts of the sea. It rotates counterclockwise, facing north in January, west in April, south in July, and east in October before facing north again as the new year passes.
The night sky used to be a light as day. But one day, the great shark Bakunawa swam up from his den, greedily longing for the large bright ball in the sky. It flew up from the seas, trying to gobble up the moon!
The people on earth saw the skies darken and immediately started making noise to scare it away! They played drums, sang, danced, and fortunately, the moon was too large for the Bakunawa to swallow.
When Bakunawa spit out the moon, it was no longer as bright. He had left bite marks and taken chunks off the moon, making the night sky darker that the day's.