What did an eclipse mean to an ancient Kapampangan farmer?

We tend to take the “culture” part of “agriculture” for granted. Nowadays, when we hear the word “agriculture,” we immediately associate it with food, and sometimes, unfortunately, poverty. Much of the Philippines' agricultural workers live below the poverty line, surviving hand-to-mouth working in a seemingly thankless industry.

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If we’re a bit more introspective, we might relate agriculture to farming and fishing, to a deeply unfair and imbalanced food system that, despite being able to produce enough food to eradicate hunger on a global scale, nonetheless leaves many people poor, hungry, and lacking in nutrition.

But today’s column isn’t about that. Today’s column is about the relationship between agriculture and folklore, specifically in Kapampangan culture.

I sat down with Mike Pangilinan, Administrative Officer of the Kapampangan Language Services Office under the Office of the Mayor and Administrator of the Sinupan Singsing Center for Kapampangan Culture and Heritage to discuss the role of folklore in agriculture. We were introduced by author Karl Gaverza, whose website Philippine Spirits (phspirits.com) is a popular resource for all things Philippine mythology.

Ancient Filipinos, like all ancient societies, used what is now known as folklore as a way to make sense of the weird and frankly, quite terrifying world around them. Because science had yet to take root, everything was couched in storytelling.