HOW IT BEGAN KADAYAWAN festival gained

popularity
With it’s highlights of bountiful
harvest of
The people of davao city including the
Lumad, Moro, and Christian group.

But more than anything else, the

festival is
Rooted in time of how the province of
Davao maintained a celebration of
Thanks giving with no tribal borders.
The festival’s origins can also be traced back to the 1970’s when Elias
B. Lopez,
a Bagobo decent and city mayor at that time,
founded few tribal festivals which highlighted
Thanks giving rituals and ceremonies of the indigenous and Muslim
group of Mindanao.

The name was in honor of

Mount Apo, and the
mother of vandas, the
Waling-Waling. These two
are also iconic symbols of
Davao City.
Through the fiesta, Dabawenyos would be
able to unite and rise to the tide of times
soon after the historic EDSA People Power.
As a more unified community this time,
Davao City would be known as a peaceful
and a safe tourist destination for guests and
visitors.
The Apo Duwaling Festival was then replaced by the currently known
name,
“Kadayawan sa Dabaw” after Mayor Rodrigo Duterte assumed his
office as city mayor in 1988.
In this way, the festival refocuses on the rich harvests of Davao and the
native rituals associated to their special thanksgiving.
The eleven ethnic groups of Davao continue to live in the proximity of
the city reminding Davao’s rich cultural heritage.
The 11 tribes of the city are the Bagobo-Kalata, Bagobo-tagabawa,
Matigsalug, Ata Manobo
, and Ovu Manobo of the Lumad; and the Moro people of Sama, Kagan,
Maguindanao, Iranun, Maranao, and Tausug tribes.
SOME PICTURES OF TRIBES
 BAGO AKLATA

Bagobo-tagabawa
 Matigsalug

Ata Manobo
Kadayawan Festival is an annual celebration in the City of Davao.
Every third (3rd) week of August, the Davaoeños celebrates life,
give thanksgiving for the gifts of nature, the wealth of culture, and
the bounties of the year’s harvest. This festival focuses on the mix
of Davao and Mindanao’s indigenous communities as well as its
migrant settlers which make up the rich cultural heritage of this
island.
ORIGIN OF KADAYAWAN
FESTIVAL
It was said that, long time ago, Davao’s ethnic tribes residing at
the foot of Mount Apo would converge during a bountiful
harvest to perform a ritual that serves as their thanksgiving to the
gods particularly to the “Manama” (the Supreme Being). In this
ritual, various farming implements, fruits, flowers, vegetables, rice
and corn grains were displayed on mats as villagers give their
respect and thanks for the year’s abundance.
Later in 1986, a program called “Unlad Proyekto Davao” was
initiated by the government which was aimed to unite the
Dabawenyos after the turbulent Martial Law era. At that time, the
festival was called “Apo Duwaling,” a name created from the
famous icons of Davao: Mt. Apo, the country’s highest peak;
Durian, the king of fruits; and Waling-waling, the queen of
orchids. “Apo Duwaling” was meant to showcase the city as a
peaceful destination to visit and to do business after 1986 EDSA
Revolution.
It was in 1988 when City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte renamed the
festival as “Kadayawan sa Dabaw” to celebrate the bountiful
harvest of Davao’s flowers, fruits and other produce as well as the
wealth of the city’s cultures. To this day, the festival continues to
honor the city’s richness and diverse artistic, cultural and historical
heritage in a grand celebration of thanksgiving for all of Davao
City’s blessings.
WHAT KADAYAWAN FESTIVAL
IS TODAY
Today, Kadayawan is known as one of the must-go -to festival in
the country. It has transformed into a festival of festivals, with a
number of spin-off festivals in the region. It honors Davao’s
artistic, cultural and historical heritage, and its past is personified
by the ancestral Lumad people, its people celebrating in the
streets, and a parade showcasing its booming floral industry in
full regalia for the blessings granted on the city.
DROUP 9
MEMBERS:
ARA JANE AMORA
ISA CABALUNA
IVAN BENTULAN
ALMA JEAN MAGADAN
EDELYN FORMENTERA