Festival of Lights

It's the first day of the month of February! Hola! How did you spend it? --- Today's also the 4th day of the Liwanag World Festival. It's really really fast and I assume that every person who participated in the event was satisfied! We witnessed a lot of performances earlier this morning until the afternoon. The Bayanihan Dance Troupe was there to perform 2 dances while the Madayaw Cultural Ensemble who showed us the Tausug Dance. They were all magnificent, dancing so elegantly! It was amazing. There were also talks, sessions and at the end of the program, participants went to their workshops. So this is up for today, I'm gonna show you some of the photos I took earlier today. The performances of the Bayanihan Dance Troupe and Madayaw Culural Ensemble. 

YEP! That's Ina Feleo. She is part of the Bayanihan Dance Troupe! 

I've seen her twice (last year) and this year performing. She is magnificent so as the whole troupe! (Dance for Peace) in their Manobo costumes.

The troupe performed 2 dances but for now, I have to post the first one since I don't want to have a very long blog post! I just love to cut it out so that people will have to look forward on what I'm up to. This is probably the time I'm gonna update my blog most often.

After a talk (yes, there was still a talk after the Bayanihan Dance Troupe) 

Tausug Group performs the ritual on their marriage, or sort of a celebration. I didn't much get it since I've never seen an actual or true to life marriage on a Tausug but to the sense that I was really really mesmerized on how the dances are so mellow-ish to dance-ish beat! AND look at their costumes! Very colorful and sossy! ;-)

In the opening act, I thought they are gonna portray a scene of war or like that but I was wrong. When the girl group went on stage, I saw their costumes. Really liked it though! 

After some dances, the bride to be has been treated to a face paint. Then I was amazed seeing it since I swear, It's really my first time to witness that in some tribe (well in the Philippines respectively) they put a white paint to a face of the bride to be and groom! 

Tada! Isn't she gorg? I find the paint some sort of a butterfly form. I don't really know what's behind all of the parapher but 'twas awesome! Capital SUPERB! ;-) I really consider us lucky (students) to see performances like this because I know some people who really want to go to the Festival but since they are not available because of their scheds and it's with fee too. 

A Tausug Wedding feast between Baluy Palang and Mussah Kainu-inuhan by the Madayaw Cultural Ensemble

These ladies right here as well performs so well! I was so jelly about the way they dance in ethnic just because. Basta! Ang galing nila.

The guy from the left side is the groom. I'm not sure how Tausug called them, but that's the groom. Guy on left is maybe the girl's guardian or father.

During the bride and groom's being painted on the face, the dances on going. 

(Left, down) is lady singing a Muslim song. Great voice!

The couple's dance is quite interesting. Check out the bride's nails. It's fake (of course) but she has to be careful bout it. Serious matter ;-) And her crown too. I think it's heavy!

While in their last minute of the performance, everyone of them dance to the beat and I think they just got married! 

To sum it up, I rate the performance 100/100! I never had an idea about those kinds of rituals/ceremonies but since they portray it, I was happy then. Now, I am more interested on knowing more tribe rituals/ceremonies and I love seeing different costumes as well. It's very catchy. The blings (I mean not an ordinary blings) but perhaps their handmade crafts. I know, some of the tribes in the Philippines make their clothing from different resources.

Normally, we don't really care about tribes. Well, some of the people. Right? Not just rituals of tribes but so as dances that are really great to watch. It has something to do about our country's nationalism. Nowadays, people are so busy about the new era of this generation that we forget our own culture and traditions. We have to preserve everything about the Philippines. It's something that's ours that no country, not even one has. We should appreciate the folk dances, ethnic and etc. Not saying that we should not be in trend but somehow, people should never forget about our country's own. It's understandable that everyday we are changing. Even you, even me. Everyone of us! Nevertheless, we should always support our tradition and culture Filipino spirit carries. 

Hint for tomorrow's post! I hope you'll stay tuned for more photos. If you have spare time,

 come and visit PWC for LWFs last day. See you, folks! :)

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LOVE