Monday, August 27, 2007 Lambagohan Festival: A Tribute to the Cagayanons' riverine life
AS THE city celebrates its annual fiesta celebration in honor of St. Augustine on August 28, Cagayanons will also hold the Lambagohan Festival as a tribute to the riverine life of their forebears and of Cagayan de Oro river and the fauna and flora that teem in its waters.
In a vibrant show of ethnic dances onboard exquisitely decorated bancas, boat racing competitions by the city's farmers and fisher folk, and a kayaking demonstration by sports enthusiasts, the festival depicts life of the yesteryears and the many more possibilities of life with the river in the new millennium.
Just as the city's name has evolved from Kalambagohan (a place where lambago trees abundantly grow) to Kagayhaan (a place of shame according to a local folklore) to Kagay-an (from the rootword kagay which means river or a place by the river) to Cagayan de Misamis in the late 1800s (so as not to confuse it with the other Cagayan in Luzon) to Cagayan de Oro in 1950 (a place by the river where rich deposits of gold are found), the Lambagohan Festival has also evolved.
It remained a nameless fluvial parade in 1994 when Dr. Jack Frias, then the city health officer and member of the city tourism board, gave the fluvial parade a name that shall henceforth identify succeeding fiesta fluvial parades of the city. He named the fluvial parade "Sakay-sakay Lambago."
"Sakay-sakay" is the vernacular term for a leisurely boat ride. Aptly named, the "Sakay-sakay Lambago," as a festival, featuring a leisurely boat ride by the river that took everyone aboard the boat, for a cool, relaxing view of the lush vegetation and the lambago trees that abound the river banks of the Cagayan de Oro River which, once upon a time, was also called Kalambagohan river.
In those days, Sakay-sakay Lambago made use of indigenous materials like banana trunks (locally known as "bani" or "upas"), bamboo and other lightweight wood, as raft. These indigenous rafts were adorned with colorful buntings and flowers while the dancers onboard performed intricate footwork and graceful body movements to the tune of indigenous musical instruments.
When Puntod Barangay Captain Alexander S. Dacer assumed the leadership of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) in the city in 2004, he broadened the concept of the Sakay-sakay Lambago to include other activities like paddle race, a search for the cleanest and greenest riverside barangay, and the Rigodon de Honor and Bangkite.
With such innovations, Sakay-sakay Lambago metamorphosed into the Lambagohan Festival that it is known today.
Environmental awareness
Today's Lambagohan Festival is not only meant to be a festive activity to coincide with the annual fiesta celebration in the city. More importantly, it is meant to raise and heighten the level of awareness among the people on the need to protect and take care of the Cagayan de Oro River.
With the Lanbagohan Festival, the city government does not only pay tribute to the Cagayanon's riverine life as a way of fulfilling its responsibility to the city's past. It is a festive way to drum up its commitment to clean up the river and make it the choice destination where children can swim in clean, crystal clear waters, or do the leisurely sakay-sakay aboard a sampan, a raft, a taxi or a kayak. (CIO)
