historicwomendaily celebration week: favorite myth (nadz’ pick)
Diyan Masalanta is the Tagalog goddess of love, conception, and childbirth; the youngest of the gods and the daughter of Dumakulem, the god of mountains and hunting, and Anagolay, the goddess of lost things.
Aside from those three aforementioned domains, she is also known as the stopper of storms and earthquakes and as the patroness of Mount Makiling, found in Laguna. It is said that she wanders around the forests of the mountain, giving aid to those who reside there in the form of gold nuggets disguised as a basket of fruits and protecting its wildlife from those who seek to destroy them. This part of her legend remains up until the present day, strengthened by occasional sightings near the area of a seemingly–ethereal lady dressed in all white.
Upon the arrival of the Spaniards and the forcible conversions to Roman Catholicism, the friars rebranded her into Mariang Makiling (Maria of Makiling) and downgraded her from her status of a goddess into a mere fairy. Moreover, the fertility rites in Obando, Bulacan which were originally done in her honor were appropriated by the friars, turning it into the feasts of San Pascual (Paschal Baylon), Santa Clara (Clare of Assisi) and the Nuestra Señora de Salambáo (Our Lady of Salambao).
Her name means “be destroyed there.”
