The Department of Tourism (DOT) opened on Saturday, Oct. 15, the first-ever festival show in Baguio City, which is seen to give way to the reawakening of the traditional tourism festivities in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).
Dubbed the “Cordillera Festival of Festival Shows”, the DOT-CAR kicked off the festival parade of the seven most celebrated festivities in the Cordilleras-- Abra’s Laga Festival; Apayao’s Say-am Festival; Baguio’s Panagbenga Festival; Benguet’s Adivay Festival; Ifugao’s Gotad Ad Ifugao; Kalinga’s Bodong Festival; and the Mt. Province’s Lang-ay Festival.
“Let us celebrate our region’s resiliency and unity that pulled us through the pandemic! It is also in celebration of Indigenous People’s Month,” DOT-CAR said in a statement.
The Laga Festival of Abra is an annual celebration paying tribute to Lubuagan women weavers. It is renowned for a Laga Fashion show celebrated every first week of March.
Apayao’s Say-am Festival is celebrated every 14th of February which is the start of the founding anniversary of the province and the ‘Isnag’ or commonly called Isneg's grandest feast featuring the traditional way of thanksgiving to ‘Alawagan’, the unseen Higher Supreme of the Isneg population.
The Adivay Festival of Benguet is an Agri-tourism festival that focused on the rich history, culture, arts, trades, and industries of the Benguet people.
The Gotad ad Ifugao Festival in Lagawe commonly offers sights and sounds of ethnic life in the mountainous province of Ifugao. This is celebrated every year in June.
Bodong Festival of Kalinga, which is previously known as the ‘Ullalim Festival’, is a month-long festivity to rekindle the custom and tradition of peacemaking.
Honoring the Kalinga practice of Bodong, the festival highlights the celebration of the founding anniversary of Kalinga after it separated from Apayao as an independent province by virtue of Republic Act No. 7878 signed into law by then President Fidel V. Ramos on February 14, 1995.
The Mountain Province’s Lang-ay Festival is an Igorot word meaning a ‘fellowship’ where local folks gather to celebrate and perform the "cañao” that involves the offering of locally brewed rice wine or tapey (tapoy), and butchering pigs, chickens, harvest and prayers to their pagan gods.
This is also signifying the traditional practice of generosity, sharing, respect, and unity among the diverse tribes of Mountain Province, according to the DOT.
Meanwhile, the Panagbenga Festival of Baguio City is considered the mother of all festivals in the Cordillera region.
Panagbenga Festival or the ‘Flower Festival’ is a month-long annual occasion in Baguio City.
The word "panagbenga" is a Kankanaey dialect that means "season of blooming". The festival is held every February to compliment the city's blooming flowers and as a way of disremembering the tragic earthquake that shook the city in 1990.
DOT-CAR Regional Director Jovy Ganongan led the opening of the festival show together with National Commission on Indigenous People-CAR (NICP-CAR) lawyer Atanacio Addog; Department of Trade and Industry-CAR (DTI-CAR) Dir. Juliet Lucas, OIC Assistant Regional Director Samuel Gallardo; Department of Science and Technology-CAR (DOST-CAR) Dir. Ralph Pablo; Department of the Interior and Local Government-CAR (DILG-CAR) Dir. Araceli San Jose; Governor Melchor Diclas of Benguet; and other local officials.