History of Barangay Bani, Bayambang, Pangasinan

The Legend of BANI

It is a fine morning for the family of Mang Julio, who is from the city of Manila who was able to marry a native of Pangasinan, Sisa. He knew that his wife possesses the character of simplicity, thus he avoids forcing her to go with him in the city and allows himself to build his home in Pangasinan together with their two children.

The family wakes up early every day to do their household chores. After breakfast, Mang Julio and his son untie the carabao and take their way to the field. Left in their house is Aling Sisa, who is helped by her daughter in preparing their lunch.

As soon as they get to the field, Mang Julio prepares the carabao to plow the soil with the help of his son. Both of them devote themselves to this daily routine.

They are trying to finish plowing the piece of land when Mang Julio notices that the clouds have turned grey, warning them of heavy rain. And just as they expected, rain pours down with lightning and thunder. Without delay, they untie their carabao and run back to their house, but the rain gets harder, lasting for couple of days.

As soon as the storm passed, Mang Julio goes out again to visit his farm. When he is still at a distance far from his land, he notices a tree beginning to spring. Perplexed, Mang Julio walks on toward his farm. He reaches the land and takes time paying attention to the tree that got his curiosity. It is a beautiful tree with peculiar leaves and fragrant smell.

Mang Julio is trying to erase the tree in his mind when an old woman carrying his grandson passes by. The child takes notice of the beautiful tree, and shouts, “Bae, ni!” (Grandma, look!). The old woman hears his grandson yell, but doesn’t pay attention to the tree he is pointing at, so the child shouts again, “Bae, ni! Bae ni! Bae ni!,” and repeats the same for several times. Again, the old woman refuses to pay attention.

The dark clouds start to darken his surroundings when Mang Julio hears the child, but when he searches for his voice, he finds nothing. When the skies turn bright again, the old woman and the child are gone.  He tries to search them out but again fails. Instead, he sees two trees standing nearby that look like the tree he has seen earlier.

Mang Julio gets near the trees to examine them and recalls everything that has happened. He is reminded by the voice of the child saying, “Bae, ni!” and thinks that maybe it is the name of the tree.

After sometime, the trees grow very fast and abound in every corner and the tree is called “baeni.” It turns out to be a good mosquito repellant.

As the years pass by, the term “baeni” is shortened to “bani.” Because the tree remains abundant in the community, the people call their place “Barrio Bani.”