“Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea, and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee….”

 

If you’ve started humming along then you must have grown up in the 60s and 70s when the song was popularized by Peter, Paul, and Mary.  Puff was the imaginary friend of little Jackie Paper, who in time outgrows his friend, leaving the dragon sad and lonely.  This simple song, originally a poem, has spawned a cartoon series and a book that continues the story by having Jackie Paper introduce Puff the magic dragon to his own little daughter.  

 

Some Christians have an uneasy attitude towards dragons because they are identified with Satan in the book of Revelation. The dragon is linked to the ancient serpent representing the Tempter/Evil (Rev. 12:9, 20:2), and is also depicted as a fiery dragon with seven heads (Rev. 12:3), tormenting heaven and earth but eventually losing the cosmic battle between good and evil.

 

This identification of the dragon with Satan has led many well-meaning Christians, including Catholic priests, to reject the image of the dragon wherever they see it. Just recently, a Chinese friend told me that years ago, his family invited a priest to bless their home, but when the priest arrived and saw decorative dragon designs in the house, he said that the blessing could not proceed until all such images were removed. The dragon represented evil, he said, and the decorative Chinese deities also had to go because they were idolatrous.

 

The dragon of Revelation, however, is only one of many representations that the dragon can have. It is well known that in East Asian cultures, the dragon represents vitality, luck, even the imperial power of an emperor. Within the Holy Bible, the word ‘dragon’ is translated from different foreign words and evokes different meanings.  The dragon in Revelation is translated from the Greek drakón, but in Psalm 104:26 and Job 41:1-2, the Hebrew word Leviathan is also translated as a sea monster or dragon, and the verses are about the majesty of God’s creation.

 

In Exodus 7:8-10, when Moses faces the Pharaoh and has to prove his divine mission, he throws down his staff and it turns into a tannìm, a word that is translated as serpent, dragon, as well as a host of other fearful creatures (e.g., Ps. 91:13, Is. 51:9). This is differentiated from an earlier episode (Ex. 4:3) when Moses’ staff turns into a serpent, nàkhash. The serpent/dragon in Exodus is meant to demonstrate the supernatural power of God (see also Gen. 1:21, where God creates sea creatures, tanninìm). If we therefore consider the different contexts in which the English word dragon appears in certain translations of the Bible (esp. King James), we need not associate the creature only with evil. It is also about the majesty, splendor, and power of God’s creation.

 

A more open meaning of the biblical dragon would be closer to the images and feelings evoked by the Chinese dragon. First of all, there is again a translation issue because the Chinese noun is long 龍,  and the creature is described as having the amalgamated features of great animals such as the horns of a stag, the head of a camel, the claws of an eagle, the scales of a carp, etc. These are signs of its virtues and inspire awe rather than fear. Those born in the year of the dragon are believed to be people of superior skill or intelligence, which explains why many young Chinese couples plan to have a “dragon baby” this year.

 

To gain better insight into other cultures, it helps to always regard symbols in their specific contexts. Such insight can be quite crucial. In the study of Christian missions, there is a popular story about missionaries in Japan who, soon after arriving, built a magnificent church that they innocently dedicated to St. George. The centerpiece of the church was a huge image of St. George slaying a dragon, which represented a plague that was tormenting the city in St. George’s day. The missionaries were unaware that in Japan, as in China, the dragon was a symbol for the emperor. Needless to say, they gained no converts and were even suspected of plotting against the emperor.

  

The dragon means different things to different people. Even in contemporary pop culture, the mythical creature has diverse associations.  In the manga series Dragon Ball, it is a wish-granting friend. In the anime video game Dragon Quest, the hero is out to save the land from a variety of monsters. And then there is the mystery of  “the girl with the dragon tattoo.”

 

The mascot of the Ateneo de Iloilo is a blue dragon, combining the valor of the Chinese dragon with the color of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

 

Believe it or not, there are also indigenous Philippine folk tales involving dragons.  The bakunawa of the Panay region is believed to cause eclipses by swallowing one of seven moons in the sky, and when this happens, people are supposed to make enough noise to scare the dragon into spitting out the moon.

 

As we celebrate the lunar new year of the dragon, we can be sure that the festive dragons around us are not from the book of Revelation. Neither are they related to yet another doomsday prophecy that is supposed to come upon us in December. Rather, they are signs of hope, because in the Chinese symbolic world, the dragon represents strength and vitality, protection, rain and sustenance during times of drought and famine. The Chinese dragon evokes a sense of fullness that is not unlike the fullness of God’s kingdom.

 

For Chinese families and for all who share in the festivities, the new year is a time to give thanks for the good times, and also to look forward to a time of abundance. What Pope Benedict XVI has said of the Advent season can also be said of the lunar new year season, that it is a time “to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope.”

 

Years after their song first gained popularity, Peter, Paul, and Mary began to sing it in the present tense, reminding us that our innocence and our ideals can be signposts for the hoped-for future.

 

“Puff the magic dragon, lives by the sea, and frolics in the autumn mist….”

 

- Ari C. Dy, SJ