Kasanggayahan Festival

HISTORY

Every first week of October of each year, the Kasanggayahan Festival is celebrated in Sorsogon in commemoration of its foundation as a Province. It is a province-wide festival, with the center of activities in Sorsogon City. Kasanggayahan is an old Bikol word, the meaning of which can be gleaned from this short verse: "When the fields are green and the grains are golden; when the machines work well and all business prosper; when the birds in the sky chirp freely and men on earth are peacefully happy; in Bikol, it is KASANGGAYAHAN, meaning, a life of prosperity. The Kasanggayahan Festival, which is listed by the Department of Tourism as one of the annual Philippine Festivals, is celebrated with a series of cultural, historical, religious, agro-industrial and economic activities, showcasing Sorsogon's abundant agricultural products, particularly food and decorative items from the versatile Pili tree, which is indigenous to the province. The Festival is highlighted by the inimitable Pantomina sa Tinampo. Pantomina, a traditional Bikol dance, is known as a dance of love and courtship actually the dance of the doves or sinalampati, as it was then known before the coming of the Spanish colonizers.The Pantomina, or pantomime, imitates, in dance, the courtship and lovemaking of the doves. But it is only in Sorsogon where this is danced in the streets, or tinampo, by droves of eager dancers wearing colorful native attire, as they cajole and coax tourists and onlookers to join in the fun and merrymaking, partake of tuba, the native coconut wine, and lechon, or roast pig, carried by dancers as they swing and sway and do their love dance down the streets of Sorsogon.

The event kicked off with the longest foot parade

Street Dance Compitetion The Festival is highlighted by the inimitable Pantomina sa Tinampo. Pantomina, a traditional Bikol dance, is known as a dance of love and courtship

Pakkaat Kallo
Date: Holy Week Location: Magpet, Cotabato

HISTORY
Pakkaat Kallo is the annual feast of the Manobo tribal community of Magpet in celebration of a bountiful harvest. This is done during the Holy Week. Manobo or Manuvu means person or people; it may also have been originally Mansuba from man (person or people) and suba (river), hence meaning river people. A third derivation is from Banobo, the name of a creek that presently flows to Pulangi River about 2 km below Cotabato City. A fourth is from man meaning first, aboriginal and tuvu meaning grow, growth. Manobo is the hispanized form. The Manobo Belong to the original stock of proto-Philippine or proto-Austronesian people who came from South China thousands of years ago, earlier than the Ifugao and other terrace-building peoples of the northern Luzon. Ethnolinguist Richard Elkins(1966)coined the term Proto-Manobo to designate this stock of aboriginal non-Negritoid people of Mindanao. The first Manobo settlers lived in northern Mindanao: Camiguin, Cagayan, and some areas of Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental. Subgroups are: Agusan-Surigao, Ata, Bagobo, Banwaon, Blit, Bukidnon, Cotabato(which include the Arumanen, Kirintekan, and Livunganen), Dibabawon, Higaonon, Ilianon, Kulamanen, Manuvu, Matigsalug, Rajah Kabungsuan, Sarangani, Tboli, Tagabawa, Tigwa, Ubo, Umayamnon, and western Bukidnon. Manobo languages representative of these groups are Agusanon, Banwaon, Binukid of Mindanao, Cagayano of Cagayancillo Island, Cotabato Manobo, Dibabawon Manobo, Eatern Davao Manobo, Ilianon Manobo, Kidapawan, Kinamigin of Camiguin Island, Livunganen, Magahat, Sarangani Manobo, Southern Cotabato and Davao Manobo, Tasaday, Tagabawa, Tigwa Manobo,, Ubo of the Mt Apo region in Davao, western Bukidnon Manobo, and western Cotabato Manobo (Elkins 1966; Olson 1967). The Manobo have for their neighbors the Talaandig of Bukidnon, the Matigsalug of the middle Davao River area, the Attaw or Jangan of the midland area which is now within the jurisdiction of Davao City, the Tahavawa and Bilaan in the south and southeast, and the Ilianon along the Pulangi river basin . This was the site of barter dealings with the Muslim traders who travelled upriver into the hinterlands. Before the Spanish colonial period, the Manobo wore bark cloth to cover their genitalia. Today they wear Western clothes: the skirt and blouse or dress for the women, trousers and sports shirt for men. The heavily embroidered traditional Manobo costume is now worn only on special occasions. Traditional fabric for clothes was abaca or hemp, weaved by the ikat process, but is now cotto cloth obatained through trade. Dyes were acquired from plants and trees: the tagum plant and the bark of the lamud treee produced lack, the turmeric root, yellow, and the keleluza plant, red. Ginuwatan are inwoven representational designs such as flowers. If cotton trade cloth is bought, big floral designs are preferred. Typical colors are red, black, yellow, green, blue and white. Manobo ancestors had blankets of abaca fiber which were linetungan if these had multicolored design, and bayas if plain white. Magpet derived its name from the word Malotpot which means a place where people gather

in fellowship to partake of their packed lunch wrapped in banana leaves. An anonymous lexicographer inadvertently shortened the word Linoppot to Maupot. Much later and further spelled into MAGPET by a certain forester in his survey report. Consequently, the word Magpet stuck not only to mean the place but also the stream of the cool, fresh and clean water. By the present connotation, Magpet means the verdant lands of countless waters. The life of the early years settlers and inhabitants of Magpet was a tale of survival and fortitude. Their lives were always in danger. Bloodthirsty malarial mosquitos attacked them. Grandparents often told their grandchildren the stories about eating their meals inside the mosquito nets because mosquitoes were as big as bees. Yet, all the hardships and suffering, and even death of the early settlers only served to strengthen their decision to stay and utilize the vast natural resources of Magpet. The land was very fertile and varieties of fishes were found in the rivers and streams, and on the woodlands, wild pigs, deer and birds are plentiful. Food was not a problem during that period, but rather, marketing of production surplus and purchase of basic commodities. They traveled for days and weeks in order to sell their crops to the nearest trading centers and they needed salt, sugar, matches and soap for daily needs.

Pakkaat Kallo Dance Parade

Kasanggayahan Festival
October of each year Sorsogon

Conie M.Relliza ART 1-C

Pakkaat Kallo
Date: Holy Week Location: Magpet, Cotabato

Conie M.Relliza ART 1-C