KADAYAWAN FESTIVAL

Today at Asia Gardens 5* Luxury Hotel we are travelling to a part of Asia we still hadn’t visited with you: Philippines. More concretely we are telling you about the city of Davao, which has been organizing the “Kadayawan Festival” for more than 20 years.

The name of this attractive festival comes from the greeting “Madayaw”, which also comes from the word “dayaw”, that means beautiful, valuable or good. The festival is a celebration of life and an appreciation of nature.

The tradition that has evolved into the annual festival began when the ethnic tribes in Davao started to celebrate a good harvest with songs and dances, giving thanks to the God Manama. Apart from this, the farmers put out flowers, fruits and vegetables on a blanket and the town people presented their respect and thanked the abundance of the harvest.

This “thanksgiving” is still on top, although they carry it out in a different way. It is considered the festival of festivals, because they don’t just celebrate a good harvest, but they also pay homage to the cultural, artistic and historical heritage they have. The dances are made by the “Lumad” and the celebration focuses on 3 aspects: tribal, industrial and art/entertainment.

In spite of existing 10 different tribes in Davao, all of them are connected and they join to celebrate this festival. They come from different places and have various lifestyles, but when the festival is due, they become one. This has led to the creation of the first Women’s Development Code: their rights are recognized; they live in a equal way with men and carry out the same activities, which is a novelty in this part of the world.

Davao has a very abundant flora and fauna throughout the year, giving its inhabitants food, water and sustenance constantly. The World Health Organization recognized some time ago Davao’s tap water as one of the best in the world.

We hope that you have learned a bit more about this zone of Asia. From Asia Gardens 5* Luxury Hotel in Spain we invite you to keep on learning about this fascinating continent and to visit us whenever you want to.