The Igkhumtad Ad Majawjaw Celebration
May 12, 2014
The three-day occasion was an opportunity for the people to display their unique cultural and traditional practices thru the different ethnic games, dances, songs and other activities.
According to Mayor Ronie Lumayna, preserving the good custom and traditions is a lesson for the young generation to appreciate, learn and cherish and challenges them to learn and understand that their history is the basic stepping stone towards the attainment of their dreams and aspirations for a more enhanced and developed modern Mayoyao.
Vice Mayor Jimmy Padchanan Jr. also added that this festival reminds all about the importance of cultural heritage not only for identity but also for tourism development and this festivity indicates another momentous event of the Mayoyao people inspired by a common interest and collective efforts to preserve their cultural heritage and meet the challenges of community development.
The festival featured native dances, ethnic games competition such as “manglon” or wood splitting, “olot” or rice pounding, “a-awwit” or native wrestling, “hanggor” or arm wrestling, “khubpfu” or foot wrestling, ennajatan” or climbing the pole, “akkad” or stilt walking, “linnet” or tug-of-war.
There were also ground demonstrations on creative dances, agro-industrial fair activities, woodcarving, rice-wine making, broom making, innovative cooking contest, contest on the display of recycled waste products and processed organic feeds/fertilizers and pesticides.(JDP/DBC-PIA CAR, Ifugao)
THE FESTIVAL HISTORY
On May 23, 1925 Gov. Gen. Leonard Wood signed executive order 27 creating the municipal district of Mayoyao effective on June 1, 1925.
Mayoyao is one of Ifugao’s 11 municipalities and has an almost 16,000 population scattered among its 27 barangays.
Every April 25 – 27, the municipality comes alive with its Igkhumtad ad Majawjaw in which locals actively participate, and which even residents from other Ifugao municipalities attend. According to municipal planning and development officer Florence Ponchilan, the festival name was changed into Tikhaw ad Majawjaw a few years ago but because the word “tikhaw” is associated with headhunting, Mayoyao officials decided to change back the name into Igkhumtad.
WHAT IT USED TO BEMayoyao is one of Ifugao’s 11 municipalities and has an almost 16,000 population scattered among its 27 barangays.
Every April 25 – 27, the municipality comes alive with its Igkhumtad ad Majawjaw in which locals actively participate, and which even residents from other Ifugao municipalities attend. According to municipal planning and development officer Florence Ponchilan, the festival name was changed into Tikhaw ad Majawjaw a few years ago but because the word “tikhaw” is associated with headhunting, Mayoyao officials decided to change back the name into Igkhumtad.
The Ifugaos and Cordillerans as a whole continued to steadfastly observe their age-old traditions as the Spanish tried, but failed, to fully impose Christianity in the northern highlands.
Phunphuni is known as the deity of agriculture in Mayoyao. This deity was believed to control the growth and harvest of palay and other crops, and played a major role in the rice culture cycle.
Mayoyao’s rice agriculture calendar started with the pangngah or seedtime sowing sacrifice. Religious sacrifices of chickens and pigs were done to ensure full growth of the palay seedlings.
Drinking rice wine was also part of pangngah. Groups of men and young boys went from house to house and as they drank, they started singing the ergwad—which told of their ancestors’ exploits in deer hunting and human head taking.
Simultaneously done with the ergwad was mon ah-hujan wherein speakers outwit each other in an argument while boys listen purposely to learn more about their customs and traditions.
Next was the orpi sacrifice done after the transplanting of rice seedlings. There were additional rites and animal sacrifices performed by wealthy families in this sacrifice. Rituals and prayers were also much longer than those in the pangngah. Part of the Orpi ceremony was taking a sacrificed chicken to a designated rice paddy where a shaman performed rituals.
The lopeng religious rite with chicken sacrifice was next, done when the palay blooms are almost ripe. This involves driving away rice birds, rats, and other pests from the palay to ensure a bountiful harvest. A strict observance of a rest and prohibition day or ngilin was a must—no one was allowed to work on the rice fields or the kaingin.
The harvest season or pfoto came next wherein usual animal sacrifices of chicken or pigs were performed by every family.
In every barrio, a family starts a harvest called chupag while a shaman performs an animal sacrifice before men, women, and boys go to the fields to harvest. The following day is considered a holy day or ngilin. Harvest goes in full swing the next day.
When harvest is almost over, the most solemn celebration in Mayoyao’s rice calendar called tungngaw is observed. It is a one-day ngilinpracticed mostly in eastern and central Mayoyao. All man-made noise are avoided from dawn to six in the afternoon.
During tungngaw, people flock to the rivers to bathe. This day is also for young boys to train for adulthood and to learn about their customs and traditions. A shaman teaches the boys about religious rituals such as the chanting of the phartong which is part of the rice ritual.
A civilization rooted in the terraces
“Ifugaos were moving mountains long before they knew they could,” a municipal account of the Igkhumtad stated.
The creation of the terraces is an epic wonder in itself. But nowadays the inexplicable thing is how numerous descendants of a proud people that succeeded in
resisting foreign conquest are nearly oblivious of the threat to their culture.
Until the 29th, the beating of the gongs will be heard in Mayoyao’s centro, they say these gongs are sounded for “receiving blessings of confidence from ancestors, regaining faith in ourselves.” Locals will participate in the activities set for the festival—observed with the goal of keeping the Mayoyao traditions alive—but after the fiesta, what then?
The same sentiment has been said over and over. Eventually the hardworking and knowledgeable elders will be the only ones left toiling in the fields as most of
the youth are too influenced by the modern world.
This may be good for their personal growth, but dreadful for Ifugao’s fading cultural practices as a whole. For when there is no indigenous culture to safeguard anymore—and this is a question for every one of us—who are we letting ourselves become?
Efforts in preserving the rice terraces by well-meaning groups and individuals may hopefully pave the way for a more concerted attempt at reversing the destruction of these glorious living monuments of Filipino ingenuity.
SAVING A CULTURE
“These rituals of planting and harvest are not observed that much anymore,” Pinalgan said, adding that this is the greatest threat to the rice terraces.
Indigenous know-ledge (IK) holder Gloria Likiyan agrees, “The biggest threat aside from nature (erosion) is that indigenous knowledge is endangered, younger ones are looking for other jobs.”
Because rice planting and production is not deemed a viable livelihood in Ifugao as of now, residents look for other jobs in Quirino, Isabela, or Baguio, and then just return on harvest season.
Likiyan said that they are hoping to someday build a School of Living Traditions (SLT) in Mayoyao where songs and dances and the rice culture will be taught to children. The IK holders will get the kids to participate in the rice cycle activities so that they will know more about their history and their roles in safeguarding it for the future.
“Maybe if they learn it, they will do it,” she said.
Tourist guide Leandro Elahe said that they are only awaiting the availability of an area where they can do sit-ins and teach children about Mayoyao culture—a sort of SLT for the meantime. He added that restoration of rice terraces walls are also in progress.
Ifugao representative Solomon Chungalao, who is a Mayoyao native, said that eco-tourism or responsible tourism, and acculturation by visitors may help in preserving the fading rice culture.
“Modern times have set in, but still we have to preserve the basis of this culture,” he said.
He is now knee-deep in having primary irrigation channels to support the old irrigation canals built especially from Mayoyao’s Barangay Chaya to adjacent town Aguinaldo.
He also envisions new rice terraces to be built towards Isabela.
The Pochon Group, a youth organization formed in 2005 and a member of the Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement, arranges eco-tours in Mayoyao with the ultimate aim of saving its rice culture. They also engage in trainings to provide the less-fortunate opportunities for employment. One of Pochon Group’s tours is the Pfoto ad Majawjaw wherein lowlanders are encouraged to participate in Mayoyao local’s rice harvest rituals and practices.
Main references
“Mayoyao cultural and political history” by Rev. Matias Angiwan Sr.
see more at http://news.pia.gov.ph/article/view/151399359865/ifugao-town-celebrates-igkhumtad-ad-majawjaw-2014
http://baguiomidlandcourier.com.ph/anniv09_article.asp?mode=anniv09/supplements/kat.txt
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