The Kaamulan Festival – The Purest of Philippine Festivals
The Kaamulan Festival was conceived to be a gathering of the various indigenous groups of Bukidnon and its neighboring areas.
The Kaamulan Festival happens in Malaybalay City in the month of March of every year.
Mamawag, a former journalist for the Manila Times, had at that time a visitor who was a Manila reporter. The journalist then wrote about the very first Kaamulan festival in a national magazine.
From then on, Kaamulan became an annual celebration to look forward to. It became hugely popular in a short span of time which is why it was eventually declared the regional festival of Northern Mindanao.
The term Kaamulan is a Binukid word which means a social gathering. The Kaamulan Festival therefore was conceived to be a gathering of the various indigenous groups of Bukidnon and its neighboring areas. These groups include The Higaunon, Umayamnon, Matigsalug, Pulangihon, Ilianon, Tigwa Manobo, Talaandig, and Western Bukidnon Manobo.
The participants of the Kaamulan Festival are real indigenous natives.
The Kaamulan Festival does not only feature street dancing activities. It is composed of a wide range of activities which include the pangampo or general worship, the tagulambong ho datu or political ritual, the panumanod or spiriting ceremony, the panlisig or driving away of evil spirits, the pamalas, kagsaba ho kabayo or native horsefight, dance clinics, chants of the Bukidnon epic olaging, singing of ballads called idangdang, recitations of the lyric poetry called limbay, verses or bayok-bayok, riddles or antoka, folk tales or nanangon, and genealogy tracing or dasang.
In all the activities and rituals mentioned above, the participants who attract the crowd are real indigenous natives. This fact is what sets the Kaamulan Festival apart from all the other festivals throughout the country.
