There’s a reason why legends about goodness live on across generations.

These stories stand the test of time because the world treasures kindness to people and respect for nature.

Mariang Makiling, an enduring character in Philippine mythology, represents these values that are arguably innate in human beings.

Her legacy imbues a new online exhibit that will be part of this year’s Culture Days, which runs from September 24 to October 24, 2021.

Culture Days is a Canada-wide celebration of arts and culture. Culture Days is also the name of the organizers of the celebration. The organization has a national office in Toronto, and each province has a Culture Days group working with local partners.

The show titled Mountain Goddess | Mariang Makiling is being presented by the Filipino Canadian Art Museum, a B.C.-based virtual art gallery and heritage museum.

Museum founder Mona Lavina says the legend of Mariang Makiling remains relevant, especially in a world ravaged by a pandemic, and made ill by the continued degradation of nature.

“We face many challenges today since the pandemic, which includes rethinking how we care for our health and the health of the environment,” Lavina told the Straight through a virtual chat.

The Kelowna-based cultural worker added the experience with lockdowns and restrictions due to COVID-19 reminds everyone of “nature’s power to heal when human activity was forced to slow down”.

“These are lessons we should remember going forward and folk stories like Maria Makiling help us remember the wisdom from our past,” Lavina said.

Interchangeably called Mariang Makiling or Maria Makiling, the anito (spirit) or diwata (fairy) predates Spanish colonization of the Asian archipelago that is now modern-day Philippines.

Before Hispanization gave her the name Maria, she was called Dayang Makiling and her spirit was invoked to stop storms and other natural calamities. Dayang is an old Tagalog word for ‘lady’.

The second part of her name refers to the mystical mountain straddling the provinces of Laguna and Batangas, located south of Manila.

In 2013, the Mount Makiling forest reserve was unveiled as a heritage park of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, boosting efforts to protect the site that has been long part of Philippine folklore.

Two themes thread the various versions of the legend.

One is that Mariang Makiling protects the mountain, guarding against those who come with greed to take nature’s bounty beyond what they need.

The second is that she is kind to people who live near the mountain, providing for them in their time of need.

One of the towns at the foot of Mount Makiling is Calamba in the province of Laguna.

Calamba is also the birthplace of Jose Rizal, a physician, author and patriot. His execution formed part of the chains of events leading to the Filipino revolution against Spanish colonization near the end of the 19^th century.

In one of his writings, Rizal retold the story of Mariang Makiling, and described her as a “fantastic creature, half nymph, half sylph”.

Her skin was ‘kayumanging-kaligatan’ (clear and light brown), and “contrary to the reputation attributed to nymphs and goddesses, Mariang Makiling is preserved always a virgin, slender and mysterious as the spirit of the mountain”.

“Her favorite walk was, as they say, after the storm; at that time she went surveying the fields, and wherever she passed she restored life, order, calm,” Rizal wrote in an English translation version from Spanish used by Lavina’s Filipino Canadian Art Museum.

The virtual exhibition Mountain Goddess | Mariang Makiling will feature live jewellery by designer Romina Urra-Gonzalez, as captured in images by photographer Allan Florendo.

The show will also include paintings of iconic Philippine flowers by B.C. artists Esmie Gayo McLaren and Charlie Frenal.

The online exhibit likewise features a flying video through the mystical mountain by Leonardo Barua of the Makiling Center for Mountain Ecosystems in the Philippines.

“It is believed that she continues to guard the mountain,” Lavina said about Mariang Makiling.

The goddess of the mountain may not show herself to ordinary mortals anymore, but Lavina believes that her “quiet strength and natural ability to restore and heal” will continue to be a “very powerful symbol”.

Mountain Goddess | Mariang Makiling will be available starting on September 24 on the website, and Instagram and Facebook accounts of the Filipino Canadian Art Museum.

For details, see here.