Tabije: Kadayawan 2012 -- My Thoughts

OFFICIALLY, the Kadayawan sa Davao is celebrated every August 17 of each year. However, traditionally, the celebration is much longer. In previous years, it was several days but this year it is a one month of celebrations. It's good for the tourism development of Davao and I’d like to give a very warm congratulations to all those who made the celebration a very successful one.

Just a bit of my two cents worth of comment though. This year's celebration is from August 1 to 26, meaning there are still remaining Kadayawan-related activities after the 17th of August. Don't you think that’s anti-climactic? I'd have thought that the 1-month celebration was better started earlier and the “big bang” happening on the 17th. What do you think?

What's more worrisome to me though, is the write-up I just recently came across at Wikipedia.com, which I quote below:

"Today, Kadayawan has transformed into a festival of festivals, with a number of spin-off festivals in the region. The festival honors Davao’s artistic, cultural and historical heritage, its past personified by the ancestral Lumad people, its people as they celebrate on the streets, and its floral industry as its representatives parade in full regalia in thanksgiving for the blessings granted on the city. A celebration that interfaces the three aspects: tribal; industrial and; arts and entertainment. The festivities are highlighted with floral floats, street-dancing competitions and exhibits that showcase the island's tourism products and services.

"Today, the recognized original tribes of Davao are here for political reasons. They are recognized because of their present day influence since they have organized themselves well. They are given deputy mayors to be their representatives to the political powers of Davao City. The present tribes of Davao are not based on historical accounts of the original inhabitants at all. They have removed the Mansakas and Mandayas from the list and replaced them with the Muslim tribes like Maranao, Tausug, and Maguindanao. Their reason is Mansaka is from Davao del Norte and Mandaya is from Davao Oriental. What they didn't notice is the places they said have "Davao" in their names while the Maguindanaos, Tausugs and Maranaos are obviously not from a place called Davao. What is more ironic is that Mandaya and Mansaka have the word "Madayaw" in their dialects from which the "Kadayawan Festival" is derived.

"If the tribes are recognized because of their present numbers in a city then the Muslim tribes (especially the Maranaos) must have been also recognized as original tribes by other cities and municipalities since they are found in numbers in every city and municipality in the Philippines."

Whatever, let's all celebrate our blessings as Dabawenyos, not only in terms of the "bounty of our harvests," but in the fact that we are so lucky in having much lesser natural calamities than the rest of the country.

Madayaw Dabaw!