The
most anticipated event in the province of Misamis Oriental is about to happen
as the Kuyamis Festival 2019 is set to celebrate early next year from January
07-11, 2019 with different activities, and exciting events folded into a
week-long festivity.
Every
second week of January sets the annual celebration of the Kuyamis Festival, the
official festivity of the Province of Misamis Oriental that also highlights the
celebration of the province’s founding anniversary which will be on its 89th
year; the province was created on November 02, 1929 through Legislative Act No.
3537 which took effect on January 01, 1930. Now on its 6th year,
Kuyamis Festival is a brainchild of Governor Yevgeny “Bambi” Emano when he
assumed office in 2013, about 5 years ago.
One
of the activities that highlight the event is the Kuyamis Festival Street
Dancing. It is an annual festivity of thanksgiving, and acknowledgement to the earlier
customs of the “lumads” who thrived in Misamis with a variety of sweet coconuts
as their basic foodstuff. The celebration is marked by merry making of
coordinated dances and songs while showcasing the coconut as a tree of life.
Misamis
Oriental with a land area of 3,575 square meters is located on the north of
Bukidnon, on the west of Agusan del Norte, and east of Iligan Bay bounded on
the north of Macajalar Bay and the Bohol Sea.
But
did you know that the word “MISAMIS” have few versions of how it came about?
THE
ORIGIN OF MISAMIS
During
the earliest account before the Spanish conquistadores’ arrival in the
Philippine archipelago, Misamis Oriental was under the flourishing and
highly-civilized Rajahnate of Butuan, an Indianized Kingdom that dominated the
Northern part, considered as one of the six “Great Kingdoms of Mindanao”. The
old Misamis is said to be part of the coastline called Caraga that starts from
the coastline of Surigao and reaches as far as Dapitan in Zamboanga Peninsula.
Accordingly,
original inhabitants of the province were the Mountain Dwellers and non-muslim
Lumads such as the Manobo and Subanen who gradually retreated following the
influx of different dwellers and migrants. Europeans such as the ancient world
colonizers Spanish and Portuguese, including Asian seafarers such as
Indonesians, and Malays have had a number of testimonies through oral tradition
of coming across “small golden colored
nuts” that grow only in the coastal areas of the Pacific islands that the
natives used as food.
Version: KUYAMIS
“Misamis”
folk etymology is said to have been derived from the word “Kuyamis”, a Subanon
term which means a variety of coconut. This type of coconut has a golden
colored exocarp or the outer layer that are smaller in size, the water or the
coconut milk, the coconut meat, and the coconut apple (the spongy mass) are
said to be soft and sweet. The inner coat or called the shell on the other hand
is bitter although soft.
During
those years, the name was persisted as an
inference of geographical location and upon the advent of the Spanish settlers,
the word easily gave way to the more conveniently pronounceable but tainted
word “Misamis”.
Another
version came into existence that “Misamis” got its name from the word “missa”,
a Spanish term for the Eucharistic Mass. It was said that during the Spanish
era where Christianity was at peak in the Philippines, the word “missa” was
shouted by native converts every time priests traveled around the province.
Overtime, the Spanish missionaries started calling it as Misamis.
Whichever
source it derived its name from, Misamis Oriental will be holding the 6th
Kuyamis Festival Street Dancing Competition on January 11, 2019 from the Provincial Capitol Grounds to the
Pelaez Sports Center from 7am to 11am with 14 contingents from different
municipalities in the province.
The
upcoming celebration will remind us about the passion of the long forgotten
history that has been reclaimed through this visual stories that will again came
into existence through significant impressions, and various steps of vocal and
dance festival.
More photos at (click the link to navigate):
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