Cultural History
The word pinatubo could mean a fertile place where one can make crops grow or could mean "made to grow" in Tagalog and Sambal, which may suggest a knowledge of its previous eruption in about 1500 AD. There is a local oral tradition that is suggestive of a folk memory of earlier large eruptions; ancient legend tells of Bacobaco, the terrible spirit of the sea, who could metamorphose into a huge turtle and who threw fire from his mouth. When being chased by the spirit hunters, Bacobaco fled to the mountain and dug a great hole in its summit showering the surrounding land with rock, mud, dust and fire for three days; howling so loudly that the earth shook.
Read more about this topic: Mount Pinatubo
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