Located in the Bicol Region of Southeastern Luzon in the Philippines is a province known as Albay. And the capital is the City of Legazpi which is right near the Mayon Volcano.
While a scenic backdrop for Legazpi, this active stratovolcano and its surrounding landscape was declared a national park in 1938 and is now called Mayon Volcano Natural Park.
While beautiful, the volcano is active and the last major eruption was in 1814 which killed over a thousand locals and ash accumulated up to 30 ft.
But the most recent eruption was in 2014 and sulfur dioxide emission was a concern.
The “Daragang Magayong” legend of Mt. Mayon is that long ago, there was a beautiful woman named Magayon, the only daughter of the tribal chief Rawis and Dawani, who died shortly after giving birth to her.
Many men tried to vie for Magayon’s attention but no one captivated her.
The hunter and chief of the Iriga tribe, Pagtuga wanted Magayon’s attention and showered her with gifts to no avail.
One day, Magayon was bathing in the river and slipped on rocks and did not know how to swim. A man who was passing by, Panganoron saw her and saved her. And immediately, he began courting her and days later, asked for Magayon’s hand in marriage and her father accepted.
When Pagtuga heard of this, he had Magayon’s father kidnapped. Magayon pleaded for her father’s release but Pagtuga would only release him if she married him instead of Panganoron.
Hearing about what Pagtuga had done, Panganoron and a group of warriors joined him to go in war against Pagtuga and the Iriga Tribe and in the end, Panganoron killed Pagtuga.
But as Magayon went to embrace her beloved Panganoron, one of Pagtuga’s soldiers shot an arrow towards Panganoron, wounding him. Eventually, Panganoron would die in Magayon’s arms.
Magayon took the knife that was in Panganoron’s side and shouted his name and stabbed herself and she would die next to her beloved.
Magayon’s father had the two buried and the area where the two were buried started to become a volcano. Her father would name the volcano after her daughter, calling it Mt. Mayon. And the clouds that surround the volcano is Panganoron.
