Heritage Month kicks off

By Nickie Wang

Manila Standard Today

3 May 2008

“To build among people a consciousness, respect, and pride for the legacies of Filipino cultural history” is the chief objective of the Filipino Heritage Festival as it commences this merry month of May.

Ongoing until June 12, a month-long celebration will take place across the archipelago to promote the diversity and richness of the Filipino culture. The whole event will be made possible by the tandem of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Department of Tourism.

This national festival aims to promote cultural heritage sites and architectural wonders, various facets of Filipino culture such as tiangges, music and dance performances, visual arts, exhibits, thematic culinary events, design retrospectives, walking tours and array of activities that will bring the Filipino people a new awareness of age-old traditions, cultural treasures and practices.

Filipino Heritage Festival director Bambi Harper stated that this year’s festivities will reopen a treasure trove of oral traditions presenting epic chants that showcase the traditional beliefs and values of early Filipinos.

To captivate local and foreign tourists, the festival will pay tribute to the Filipino epic by bringing to life age-old chants. This is spearheaded by Maranao’s venerable epic “Darangen ni Bantugen” to be performed by the Philippine Ballet Theater and Sayaw Foundation on May 14 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo. Excerpts of this epic chant will be revisited in Las Piñas and Cagayan de Oro City.

The odyssey of Darangen is a celebration of Maranao’s opulent history that narrates the adventures of mythical heroes. Embedded in the chant are social values, traditions and customary laws. This epic chant is one of the 43 declared by Unesco as “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritages of Humanity,” which is told and retold in the original ancient verse.

The festival was born out of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Proclamation 439 on Aug. 11, 2003, “declaring the month of May as National Heritage Month.” This year’s roaster of events is organized by festival president Armita Rufino and finance officer Araceli Salas.

The Heritage Month kicked off in Cagayan de Oro City with the Darangen epic, Maranao and Higaonon weaving, Subanen baskets, mats, pottery and beads, and their crafting, and performances by homegrown talents Gintong Amihan Dance Troupe of the Mindanao Polytechnic State College, the Xavier University Dance Society, and the Rondalla of Pilgrim and Mr. Waway Saway.

Underscoring this event are Farola (exhibit of Spanish colonial lighthouses found all over the country) in Gameng Museo, Ilocos Norte until July and at Robinsons Galleria on May 8, Philippine Spanish Colonial Bridges (a weeklong photo exhibit of the old Spanish colonial bridges in the Philippines by architect Manuel Noche of the University of Sto. Tomas) at Robinsons Mall, Lipa City, Batangas on May 5, Bangsa Moro Exhibit with lecture ( 30-panel photo exhibit featuring pre-colonial photographs acquired by the family of former Rep. Michael Mastura from Washington archives) at the Davao Museum on May 11 to 31, Tapan Exhibit of Philippine Fiestas ( photo exhibits by renowned photographer Donald Tapan) at Robinsons Mall Ermita on May 13, Sinauna (showcase of Filipino artifacts) at SM Mall of Asia on May 15 to 21, Patawa (evoking laughter with poems, jokes, photos and memorabilia) at the Metropolitan Museum on May 19, National Artist Exhibit at SM Megamall on May 19 to 22, Banig Exhibit and Komedya Linambay (showcase of handwoven mats of Basey, Samar) at SM Cebu on May 24, Kisame ( display of the magnificent church ceiling paintings in Bohol) at the Ayala Museum on May 26 to July 6, and “Las Gran Damas de Negros” (biographical photo exhibit of Negrense Women of Substance then and now).

The observance of the Heritage Month will also feature Santacruzan in the City of Manila tomorrow, a Balagtasan on May 7, 8, and 14 in Hagonoy, Bulacan, and also at the Inner Ground of both the Quezon City Hall and Makati City Hall, a thematic food festival at the Intercontinental Hotel featuring Bicol Food Harvest Festival, May 6 to 31, and the Parian (a re-enactment of Chinese influx to Manila to serve the needs of the Spaniards) at the Binondo Plaza on May 17.

Different regional festivities will take place across the archipelago.