Dinagat Festival of Cordova

Sea-like Dinagat Festival

A continget performing during the Dinagat Festival competition (Photo Courtesy: Shary Sorono)

The Dinagat Festival

Dinagat Festival in Cordova is a popular celebration that is annually held to showcase the livelihood and fishing culture of this municipality.

Dinagat is celebrated with religious association by holding it during the feast of the town’s patron saint – San Roque.

The Feast of St Roche falls on August 16 but the festivities usually start a few days before.

Origin of Dinagat Festival

It is first organized by the town’s local government officials to celebrate that abundance of the town’s resources, while at the same time promotes the town by attracting guests and visitors from outside.

This newly established festival has its roots from ‘bakasi festival’, a celebration that gives tribute to the abundance of eel (locally called ‘bakasi’) in the area.

The festival is first initiated in 2009. The main objective is to offer tribute to the sea resources that support the livelihood of the locals.

Cordova people do a lot of fish-catching activities to support their families and their markets that supply sea food products to other places in the province.

Additionally, since the Cordovahanons found the sea as the source of their daily life, Dinagat is organized and celebrated to raise awareness in respecting the sea and protecting it from harm. This means that environmental activities that promote awareness and protection are the themes included in this festivity.

Through the colorful and attractive celebrations, the locals and its officials hope to encourage and attract support for their cause from local, national as well as international support.
 
Now, let’s check out the interesting events of this festival…

Highlight events during the festival

You can witness Dinagat Festival’s colorful and merriment in the various events. Here are some of the activities…

Sayaw sa Dalan
This is literally the street dancing being performed by contenders of the competition that are composed of various groups. Each group or team are organized and choreographed to perform certain dance steps and routine.

Each team will be judges based on specific criteria set by the organizers of the event. They are being judged while performing their prepared dance steps and overall performance on the street.

You can be drawn into the lively dance steps, routine and beating of the drums that you begin to dance with them. The dancers wear their colorful costumes and are often taught to smile while performing their street presentations.

Pasundayag
This can be a form of variety shows or presentations by groups and individuals. The competitors perform their dance steps and routine, again, to be judged by official organizers. ‘Pasundayag’ literally means ‘to show or present’ to the public in Cebuano language.

Dinagat Festival Queen
Selecting a beauty queen at any celebrations in this culture is quite a common practice. This happens especially during fiestas.

This is another interesting part of the celebration since the organizers have to put much effort in selecting the most qualified queen of the year for this particular celebration.

The queen is usually judged to be the prettiest, brightest, most talented and has the heart for a better society.

She could be the one who got the most awards among her other competitors. The runners-ups will also be rewarded with trophies and cash.

Additional link: http://www.cebu-tourism.techcellar.net/dinagat-festival/

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Have a great festival then!

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