Friday, June 01, 2007 Kadayawan to return to its original form By Grace L. Plata
DABAWENYOS and visitors alike will be seeing a different celebration of the Kadayawan sa Dabaw Festival this coming August, as the city aims to restore the celebration to its basic and essential form -- the thanksgiving of the Davao tri-people for a bountiful harvest.
In three months, the city will be celebrating the 22nd Kadayawan Festival slated on August 8 to 19 -- the longest time given in the festival's history.
City Administrator Wendel Avisado said that after the fiasco of last year's celebration, the city wants to reformat the celebration into something that really displays the richness of the local cultural diversity.
"Somehow along the process, ang mga (those) practices dili na maong kadtong sa mga lumad ug ubang mga tribo (are no longer authentic as those of lumad and other tribes), losing the celebration's real essence," Avisado said.
Resident lumad and Islamic tribes will be given a day each to showcase their culture from songs, dance and rituals to food, costume and visual art forms.
"The city will provide them with the funding to mount the exhibit," Avisado said.
This important annual revelry is where the Dabawenyos and Mindanaoans manifest their committed effort in nurturing of culture, understanding of history, and appreciating art as part of the city's total development.
Aside from these, the city will also open the Greenbelt PTA Park for the enjoyment of the public, as Avisado said the park management has committed to finishing major construction activities in time for Kadayawan.
