One night, Bakunawa  sprung from the pitch-black ocean and bolted towards the sky —he opened his mouth as wide as he could around one of the moons and with one powerful swoop, swallowed it whole. As he did so, a huge wave of earthquake shook the ancient land of the Philippines.  

Bakunawa returned to his dwelling, satisfied that he had devoured a moon. Unfortunately, he soon realised the moon inside him was melting away like candle wax.  

Bakunawa was furious! He wanted a moon that would last and so the next night, he leapt towards the sky once more and swallowed another moon. But this too melted away. Bakunawa was infuriated and let out a loud roar in annoyance. "Well, there are many more moons in the sky...I will eat them all if I have to!" he huffed. 

Night after night he took a moon from the sky, and each time it melted away inside him. 

Soon, Bakunawa had devoured them all—but one.  

The ancient Filipinos, who suffered from the earthquakes that Bakunawa caused when he ate each moon, knew they had to do something or their world would be destroyed. Finally, they thought of an idea—they had heard that the dragon was afraid of loud noises so they gathered some pots and pans and waited for Bakunawa to appear again... 

One fateful night, Bakunawa sprung out of the ocean once more, and with a terrifying screech, sped towards the last moon and locked his jaws around it. As Bakunawa's teeth grabbed hold of the seventh moon, the earth began to be engulfed in a deep and terrifying darkness. 

The last moon, now returned to the skies above, illuminated the dark once more, and the ancient Filipinos celebrated as the dragon hid inside his caves waiting for another chance to gobble up the last remaining moon.  

Little did Bakunawa know that the creator of the universe, Bathala, had seen what the dragon had been doing to his moons. To prevent him from ever swallowing the last moon and casting the earth in eternal darkness, Bathala planted tall bamboo trees so that Bakunawa would not be able to swallow the moon so easily. These bamboo trees looked like stains or dark spots on the surface of the moon from afar.

Bakunawa never gave up and would attempt to swallow the last moon from time to time. But the people guarded it with their lives and remained alert, ready to create thundering noises should Bakunawa return. And as long as the bamboo trees remain on the moon, the dragon will never succeed in his evil deed.