Have you ever wondered what it’s like to experience the festivals and celebrations from a culture you’re a total stranger to? What sort of experiences you’d gain from taking part? What sort of atmosphere do these festivities carry? Or even what you might learn from them? You can find out easily enough by joining in with the festivals in Mindanao.
They range from big to small, grand to personal, street-wide to house-bound. In fact, there are simply too many to name and go into detail over in one article. So we’ll look at those with the most depth. The ones with the most meaning to the Philippine culture and adoration on the Mindanao islands! These are the sorts of festivals that are worth every second of the experience.
Kadayawan festival
There are many famous festivals on the Philippine islands of Mindanao. From its biggest city of Davao to its mountainous region in the South-West where you’ll find the Mount Apo volcano. The Kadayawan festival for instance (or the Kadayawan sa Dabaw Festival), is an annual celebration of the harvest and a means of expressing thankfulness to the Gods, or the supreme beings known as ‘Manama.’ The name in itself has a curious history. Deriving from the Dabawenyo word ‘Madayaw’ and generally meaning value or beauty. Though it’s more often used as a greeting!
The Kadayawan festival is just one among the many numerous celebrations you’ll find yourself potentially taking part in, depending on the timing of your visit! The Kadayawan festival is the biggest and one of the most famous Festivals in Mindanao and the Philippines. Often called the ‘Festival of all Festivals.’ It provides an unshakable spectacle of colors, elegantly transcending in a wild yet ordered dance of parading celebrators and festivity-goers. No doubt you’ll see an assortment of floats and costumes that’ll blow your mind so high up, you’ll think it might never come back down again.
If you want to catch this festival, make sure your visit to Davao is scheduled around the third week of August. That’s the best and only way to witness this parade of eleven Davao tribes all coalescing in celebratory cheer and food. Tourists are always welcome to join in the festivities and pay witness to the culture! Fruits are on display and there’s no end to smiles and cheers insight.
Festivals are of great importance to Filipinos
Festivals such as this one are of great importance to Filipinos due to their cultural heritage and their country’s history. It’s been a long time tradition in the Philippines to express gratitude to their patron saints for good harvests and other such developments. For advances that are purely natural and often out of their hands. The fiestas held are regularly seen as gratitude celebrations to these patron saints and Gods. A way to commemorate the miraculous powers from up above.
The cycle of celebration is similar in many cultures, some celebrating the wheel of time and the continually growing pattern of nature that’s led us to life. Where these Mindanao festivals differ is in their celebration of what they’ve been given, and what they know is possible. To Filipinos, festivals and fiestas are of high cultural importance this way. They pay a vital role in their yearly lives, just like Christmas celebrations would in the West. A time for families to gather and share their delight.
Celebration of pride and joy
The parading tribes in culturally significant costumes that trod through in their floats decorated in fruits and colors during the Kadayawan festival absolutely cannot be missed. Indigenous folk makes up a vast amount of those that are parading. In celebration of both their city’s wealth and harvest, but also largely of their heritage. The very festival itself could be called a celebration of pride and joy.
“The peak season for tourist arrivals in the city is usually in August, so we expect to attract more visitors, given the city’s increasing popularity not only in the Philippines but also in other parts of the globe,” said Generoso Tecson, the head of Davao City’s Tourism Office, back in 2018. Thus far, he’s been correct – over the years, more and more tourists have flocked to see the Kadayawan celebrations for their peak display of beauty. Surely, a celebration that cannot be underestimated and is impossible to leave without a lasting impression.
Tuna Festival
Whilst the Kadayawan festival is undoubtedly among the best. Don’t let it dissuade you from thinking the others can’t measure up. The Tuna Festival in General Santos City, found in the Southernmost parts of Mindanao island, for example. It may not seem anywhere near as grand as the celebrations in Davao, simply due to General Santos City’s (often abbreviated to GenSan) reputation as only the 15th most populated city in all of the Philippines (though that’s only according to a 2015 report). And yet, the Tuna Festival is by no means shorter in color or extravagance.
The Tuna Festival is celebrated annually in the first week of September, and as you may have guessed, it gets it’s named from the General Santos city’s exceeding number of tuna fish. It’s what the city’s most known for, have even come to be known as the ‘Philippines’ Tuna Capital.’ Globally, General Santos is one of the leading producers of tuna fish, with its absolute abundance of yellowfin tunas that tend to crowd around the city’s waters.
Tuna lovers favorite festival
It’s almost no wonder that General Santos would thusly become popular also for its Tuna Festival, made to celebrate the city’s successes and its long-time skillful harvest of tuna fish. Everything to do with tuna is celebrated during this festival. Though this may sound like a drab party where the smell of spoiling fish wafts daily through the air, it’s actually the exact opposite. Sweetness, taste, and color are what this festival is known for.
Tuna dishes of all kinds can be found during the Tuna Festival – sweet ones, sour ones, well-cooked or sashimi-style, with fruit or vegetables or maybe a side of something else. Maybe a side of even more tuna! The cooking contest adds competition, the variety of tuna dishes add luxury and contentment. And it all begins with a parade.
Floats with the same theme of ‘tuna’ or ‘ocean’ can be seen gallivanting through the streets in an orderly and yet wonderfully chaotic fashion. Extravagant costumes and flashy colors shine with every movement from either dancers or general parade-goers. All there to celebrate and partake in the tuna fiesta. This is perhaps the most unique festival in the world, all things considered. Where else will you find a festival that celebrates a certain type of fish?
Kalimudan Festival
The Tuna Festival is practically a heaven to the fish-loving traveler, curious sailor, or even seafood connoisseur. There’s absolutely no way you won’t find your favorite type of served tuna during this week-long celebration. It’s a seafood extravaganza. So if you’re not the sort of person who appreciates this type of cuisine, perhaps you’d be better off at another festival… such as the one held in Sultan Kudarat.
The festival held in Sultan Kudarat, located in the Soccsksargen region of Mindanao, is called the Kalimudan Festival. Which translates to ‘informal gathering.’ Arguably the most tourist-friendly out of all the festivities, this is a celebration of unity. This festival brings all races, ethnicities, tribes, and indigenous groups together. All the grandeur and rainbow of the other celebrations is by no means lost here either.
Held yearly in Sultan Kudarat’s capital Isulan, in November, sometimes beginning in later October. This celebration invites all to partake and has its own little history that dates back many years to honor unification and togetherness. Primarily to celebrate the formation of the Sultan Kudarat province as a whole.
Gifts are given and accepted throughout the festival, sports competitions are had and street dances are an absolute must. The founding of the province is a worthwhile celebration that doesn’t disappoint on any level. While it may lack in the magnitude of the Tuna Festival, or the Kadayawan Festival, it shouldn’t be overlooked. Have a visit and find the friendly locals just as sociable and open to tourists as you’d expect them to be anywhere else in Mindanao. The foods here won’t be exclusively tuna-based either, so there’s that for another bonus if you aren’t a fan!
Mindanao festivals are unique to the Philippines
There are all kinds of celebrations. All kinds of parades and fiestas. All of which bears a lot of importance in the Filipino culture, both to their traditions and to their social life. So attending one of these festivities isn’t merely an invitation to a party – it’s an invitation to their way of life. To a view of their free ideals and wonderous expression. It’s an opportunity to pay respect to the culture all whilst enjoying its benefits and bravado. A chance to be amazed by something you won’t see anywhere in the Western world, let alone anywhere else in Asia. The Mindanao festivals are unique to the Philippines. And are thus an absolutely irreplaceable experience that even the most well-traveled explorers can’t claim to match.
Want to discover more festivals? Continue reading about Famous Festivals In The Philippines
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