AI illustration
Alamat ng Lansones
Tagalog people in Laguna tell how the lansones fruit became safe to eat. In one telling in Fansler's 1921 book, the fruit was once poisonous. An angel gave it to a hungry pilgrim, and its skin still shows the angel's finger marks.
Folklore is retold; versions differ.
Old stories: How Lansones Became Edible
Sources: Wikipedia: Lansium domesticum (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikidata (CC0)
The story
Tagalog people in Laguna tell how the lansones fruit became safe to eat. In one version recorded by Dean Fansler in 1921, the fruit was once poisonous. An angel gave it to a hungry pilgrim, and the pilgrim lived. People say the marks on the skin come from the angel's fingers. This is a tale of origin, told to explain a small detail of a common fruit.
The fruit itself is well known. It grows in grape-like clusters and looks like a small potato with thin yellow hair. Inside, it has about five clear lobes with a sweet and sour taste. The Paete kind, named for Paete, Laguna, has almost no seeds. It leaks latex even when ripe. The Jolo kind is common in Mindanao and has a thicker skin.
Two towns hold festivals for the fruit. Camiguin holds its Lanzones Festival in October. Paete holds a festival in September. Felix Resurrección Hidalgo painted a lanzones seller in 1875. This work hangs in the Prado Museum in Madrid.