Saturday, February 02, 2008 Palaras-Gakit Festival: Tagoloan's festival-for-a-cause By Rubelyn Yap
JANUARY is always a month to look forward to. I always made myself available to witness one of the region's most sensible festivals, the Palaras-Gakit Festival of the municipality of Tagoloan in Misamis Oriental province.
The festival is held on the last Sunday of January before the feast of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, the patroness of the town, which falls today, February 2.
It's not the usual festival that has a street dancing or tableau presentation, it's a kind of celebration giving tribute to the patroness of course and to the Tagoloan river, which greatly contributed to the lives of Tagoloanons.
The festival is one of the longest running festivals in the region, which has been staged for the last nine years and as time goes by, the festival's objective has been achieved and has created awareness among the Tagoloanons especially the new generation.
The festival is done in the Tagoloan river where participants will use a gakit (bamboo raft) where they adorn it, added music and rhythms to make their raft lively as they traverse the river, passing the judges, the visitors and the residents as well which settled and position themselves along the river banks. They have streamers or placards bearing slogans about river protection and preservation especially its resources like, pigok fish, and of course paddling their raft through the water current of the river which is termed locally as Palaras, meaning going down stream.
The festival is organized by the Save the Rivers, Estuaries and Aqualife Movement Inc. (STREAM), a non-government organization run by Tagoloanons who care so much about their river.
For the last six years now, I have witnessed how the festival grew and drew so much awareness among the Tagoloanons and visitors.
This year, there were more than 20 participants coming from the town and the nearby areas, both public and private entities focusing on the theme, "Ang kinaiyahan gasa sa Dios sa kahitas-an, atong ampingan ug panalipdan."
Department of Tourism (DOT) Regional Director Catalino "Butch" Chan III said that his agency has been supporting the festival ever since and next year, on its 10th year, DOT will alleviate the status of the festival into a national festival, as it was able to sustain for 10 years.
Chan pointed out that the uniqueness of the festival is something tourists and visitors should witness since it has depicted environmental concern and Filipino ingenuity using indigenous materials.
I may not witness the festival for the next years to come for I will be traveling away from home, but I'll always look forward to it and I do hope that by that time, it will be something bigger and more grandiose.
