Blogpost #3 Countries' different takes on Fairies

Many people used to believe in Fairies. We have different ways to interpret them. Have you ever wonder why different countries with different cultures and different beliefs have the same idea of fairies even though we are miles apart? It's quite interesting.

Today, I wanted to share with you dear readers, what I found out about the different perspectives to fairies. Faeries, Diwatas, Little People, Nimerigar, Menehune, Kwanokasha, or Fairies. Different names, different stories. 

In the Philippines, diwata is the term for fairies. It is believed that diwatas are the protector of the mountains, forests, falls or our nature. I grow up with the knowledge of fairies. I remember one of my cousins telling me a story about him and his fairy and dwarf friends. He told me that once a fairy saved his life. He also claimed that there is a fairy at their backyard, and they play together. 

An article about one of the famous fairy in the Philippines, which is Maria Makiling, can be read in a site named Buzzle. It is stated there how generous Maria is. The diwata has been describe in that article, including her home. The article also tells how Maria rewards human and how she gets offended by the immoral, disrespectful acts of humans. It has been stated there the possible reasons why Maria never showed up again.

 The author talks about the disappearance of Maria is said that  "As time went by people saw less of Mariang Makiling. She no longer appears to people to bring them gifts of gold and jewels. Hunters have no one to turn to when they are hungry and thirsty. Others say that the cutting of trees and excessive hunting of wild animals have greatly disappointed Mariang Makiling that she refuses to come out anymore."

Living in the Philippines since when I was a kid, I knew the story of Maria Makiling. To be honest, until now i still believe in Maria Makiling .. well, there's no harm in believing. Knowing that somehow cutting of tress and excessive hunting of wild animals are some of the reasons why Maria disappeared, it gave me hope and made me believe stronger that fairies are true. Maybe, when we, humans, started to care and love our environment fairies will come back and maybe, they'll be our best friend.

Another idea about another countries' belief about fairies can be found at the article named, Native American Beliefs in the Little People. In the article, it has been discussed the beliefs to fairies of the native americans. Different names for the fairies are stated. It has been described differently by the different tribes. For some tribes, fairies are bad, some are good. Some helps us, while others plays with us. Some are shy, and some are playful.

The statement "The Laurel People are friendly but also mischievous and like to play common tricks on us (the bigger people). They say that the Laurel people will tangle your fishing line with a stick and make you think it is a huge fish, only for you to reel it in and see it is a tiny stick...they want to make you laugh and keep you young-at-heart" really caught my attention because it shows how fairies are being playful and jolly.

Reading that article made me love fairies even more because I find other beliefs cute. I love how they describe fairies being playful. The statement above is funny and cute, they're like your siblings who loves to play games with you. I can also remember Tinkerbell, in te movie Peter Pan, because Tink is really clever and since she's kind of annoyed to Wendy, the human girl, she always play tricks on her.

Some fairies that we believed in, are harmful based on the descriptions given. But I think, it kind of help the people in some way. I believe that everything has a reason and maybe the reason fairies are being harmful is because they wanted us to take care of the nature, some simple stuff like that. The fact may scare us but it somehow helped us also. For me, fairies are somehow the angels of humans or maybe the guardian of the nature, or something like that, they want what's good for us .. and they get really upset whenever we ignore what's happening to our world.