The Naliyagan Festival

 

Street dancing performance

When I was on a training course before coming here I met a lovely retired lady who had recently volunteered in the Philippines.  Anxious to find out what I was letting myself in for, I quizzed her about what it was like in the Philippines.

Her main observation on the Philippines was that the Filipinos love to celebrate, and will use any excuse for a fiesta. To be exact, she said that if they saw a slug crawling along the pavement (or slithering or whatever slugs do) they would exclaim "oh ! look ! theres a slug crawling along the pavement - we must have a fiesta !"  

Being a very religious Catholic country, they have a wealth of opportunities provided by the abundance of saints days, but manage to find a lot of other opportunities too.

 

Manobo dancers in traditional costume relax after their performance  

The biggest annual festival around where I am based is the Naliyagan Festival which takes place from 12th till the 17th June.  There are lots of fantastic performances and events, from tribal theatre and traditional dancing to mudfish relays.  In case you haven't seen a mudfish relay it is like an egg and spoon race but with a live mudfish on a plate.  They have to catch the fish by hand from a large pool before they can start !  

All the indigenous people of the area dress in their traditional costumes and perform traditional dances so it will be a good chance to sample some of the traditional culture of the area.  

The process has to include the Manobo Tribal ritual involving offerings to the gods, which for a big event like this involves sacrificing a pig by killing it with a large with a spear.  I'll spare you the 'spouting blood' photos with the blood erupting up into the air! A white chicken was also involved but somehow managed to survive.  I am sure it was pleased about that, as despite having its legs bound it fled into the crowd several times during the ceremony and had to be recaptured and passed back.

The festival culminates on saturday which is the anniversary of the creation of the Province of Agusan del Sur.  Saturday's programme also includes the Indigenous Peoples' Summit. 

Other events included concerts and fireworks in the evenings, moto-cross racing, off road driving races, Agri-lympics (fastest manual rice miller, fastest firemaker, and lots of silly games mostly involving coconuts, to name but a few). 

There are lots of booths and displays publicising the work the Provincial Government is doing, and each Municipality in the Province has a stand showcasing their area, its produce and its people. 

About  three days before the festival began it was decided by the Honourable Governor that there should be a display about the work Voluntary Service Overseas is doing in the province, so us volunteers had to frantically put together a display involving posters, photos and leaflets for a VSO booth. 

 

It is work really – honest ! Hungarian volunteer Ferenc Kis and I staffing the VSO booth at the festival. 

Amongst other things in the display we each had to to a large poster with photos of us doing our work out in the communities and a bit of background about who we were and where we had come from ! 

We had to help to man the stand as well, but it was all good fun with plenty of opportunites to wander round and enjoy the festival. 

I even found time to try my hand at learning to play traditional instruments at the Provincial tribal Booth which had displays about the cultures and costumes of the various tribal groups of Agusan del Sur !

On friday the Governor invited the VSO volunteers to join him for the evening programme – considered a great honour.  It was a rather bizarre experience, as we spent the evening surrounded by about ten armed bodyguards. Heavy duty weapons were everywhere. Not something I am unsed to coming from the gun-free UK!

I have never had my wine served by a man with a gun before !  I couldn't quite decide if it made me feel safe or unsafe. 

Anyway, the Governor spent the evening chatting to the Governor and listening to the band competition, although Ferenc was a bit distracted by the pretty young ladies which the Governor's 'entertainment manager' invited along for the amusement of the Governor's male guests (in case you were wondering, similar services are not provided for his female guests !)

All in all, it was a great festival, and not much work (other than the festival) has been done by anyone in the Provincial Government offices this week !