Maria Caseñas Pajo - Bohol Folklore

Statement of the problem. It is the purpose of this study (1) to attempt a survey of Boholano Folklore for this has never been tried so far; (2) to find out if Bohol is really a fertile field for folklore as has been claimed; (3) to make a collection of folklore to be read and to be enjoyed for its own sake; (4) to find how much folklore has influenced the lives of the people as revealed through observation and study; (5) to collect folktales and other folkloristic data of Bohol in order to help provide materials for such comparative studies, since the present materials are still insufficient; (6) to record in writing oral literature of our own native dialect into English; and (7) to point out the literary and educational value of Boholano folklore.

Importance of the study. The habit, of telling stories

First, folklore was used as a recreative device in school and home, simply for amusement and individual entertainment.

Second, folklore has been the means of approach to a study of the mind of ancient peoples and to the acquisition of scientific information regarding the past history of the people of a certain land. Through an analysis of folklore, it is possible to trace the history of a civilization or

Third, folklore is important for it has shaped behavior, transmitted laws, customs, and traditions; gave mental relief and entertainment; fostered appreciation for arts; glorified sterling qualities like the beauty of loyalty and hospitality and other sterling qualities; fired the hearts of the young with a noble ambition to excel their fathers or heroes in fortitude and valor; and instructed the youth as a book, magazine, motion picture, drama, lecture, sermon, all condensed into a single personality.

Fourth, folklore is an appreciation-fostering device. Our likings are as important as our knowings. Our appreciations and aversions, our desires and disgusts, are the supreme potencies in character education. Sensing good literature and liking good literature come only from exposure to good literature. One should not forget that our Great Teacher, used the parable as a vehicle of truth. His hearers remembered His stories better than His sermons. In method, any device would do well to follow in the steps of the Master Teacher.

Folklore, therefore, when well-chosen and wisely selected will develop in a child a taste for the good and an aversion for the bad; attitude of altruistic emotions, aesthetic emotions, and moral emotions, are all worked and established by folklore.

Lastly, folklore is a conduct-governing device. To modify conduct is one of the oldest conscious purposes of folklore. It has stood the teats of time and of various conditions.

Professor Beyer of the University of the Philippines emphasized the study of folklore as having two distinct objects:

First, the history of popular literature and the literary development which it contains; second, as an aid to the ethnological study of a group of people for determining the history of their culture and migrations.

Folklore. The word folklore was adopted in the middle of the nineteenth century by European scholars engaged in the study of popular literature. The literal meaning is simple lore or knowledge of the folk or people. For its original form, folklore referred to oral knowledge which was preserved for many years among illiterate masses of civilized countries but now, it refers to all peoples irrespective of whether they have a written language or not. It therefore includes traditions, customs, beliefs, tales, riddles, proverbs, legends, myths, poetry, folk songs, and folk dances. Therefore, folklore is a total mass of traditional matter in prose and poetry, in music and arts, in the minds of a given people at a given time. Folklore is not something far away and long ago, but real and living among us.

Folklore is the scholars word for something that is simple and natural as singing songs and spinning yarns among the folk who know the nature and the meaning but not the name of folklore.

The essence of folklore is something that cannot be contained in a definition but that grows upon with folklore experiences like old songs, stories, sayings, beliefs, customs, and practices; in brief, the mind skills and the hand skills that have been handed down so long that they seem to have a life of their own, a life that cannot be destroyed by print.

Myths. A myth is an imaginative explanation or interpretation by man of himself or of the objectives and events in nature outside of himself, including their appearance, their effect, and the still greater mystery of their causes. It may relate a historical event which will serve to explain some practice, belief, institution, or natural phenomenon. It is associated with religious beliefs and rites. It is always counted as part of religion. It is a sort of sacred literature of man. In brief, it discloses mans scientific spirit, his religious nature, and his philosophy of life. The myth is considered not merely as a vehicle of truth but truth itself; its brief characters are deities with heroes, common mortals, and animals in subordinate roles.

Legends. A legend is any story coming from the past which may be historical in character but cannot be proved as such, or may be a fictitious story in which the characters are human beings or humanized animals. The hero of a legend by his wit, skill, or energy, or by the lack of these abilities, performs deeds that are either marvelous or amusing. The hero may be a humble shepherd or an ancestor, or he may be a. fool of the family, or he may be a