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Monday, March 01, 2004
Bayluhay Festival of San Joaquin
By Atty. Rex S. Salvilla
LAST January 16, the town of San Joaquin asserted itself strongly as the cradle of civilization in West Visayas by celebrating the First Bayluhay Festival.
This grand affair is a ceremonious reenactment of the coming of the Ten Malay datus from Borneo centuries ago under Datu Puti and the Barter of Panay between them and the aboriginal Atis of Aninipay (now Panay) under marikudo.
The landing place of the Malays as at the mouth of Andona River and the traditional site of the Barter of Panay was at Embidayan Rck-both located in San Joaquin.
The consideration of the barter was a gold sadok (tropical helmet) with a bonus of a mananangyad (long necklace reaching the ground) given to Maniwangtiwan-spouse of Marikudo. This event is also considered as the first and the biggest (involving the entire island of Panay) real estate transaction in the whole country.
The affair began in the morning with the sighting of Malay barangays at the sea by the Atis on the shore followed by their landings and elaborate Malay thanksgiving ritual and negotiation for the barter.
In the afternoon, a cultural presentation was held featuring various ancient Malay ritual practices like Pagpangaluyag (courtship), Pagkasal (marriage), Pagpanidlak (rice planting), pag-ani, (rice harvesting), batak dungan (taming the twin spirit of a newborn child), bawi dungan (catching the twin spirit who escapes from a person), paglubng (burial) and pagtulod (instructing the soul of a dead person not to molest the living).
This reenactment of the great historical event in West Visayas, and no doubt, in the whole country, was due to the untiring efforts of Mayor Ma. Daisy S. Sibya and the good people of San Joaquin, Iloilo.
By the way, because of the many requests for clippings of back issues of this column, this writer is coming up with a complete album of this column in two volumes -- Volume 1 for 2002 with 73 titles and Volume 2 for 2003 with 53 titles. Copies are available on request at P400 per volume.
Contact this writer at telephone number +63 33 337-30-45.
(March 1, 2004 issue)
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