Kadayawan Festival of Davao City – Kadayawan sa Dabaw

The Festival

Kadayawan Festival is a celebration of thanksgiving for bountiful harvest. This weeklong event is celebrated every 3rd week of August which is the season of good harvest of fruits and orchids.
Floats of fresh flowers and fruits are found in the streets as participants in colorful costumes does the street dancing, or in native tounge, the “indak-indak sa kadalanan”. A parade highlights variety of tribes in their costumes and jewelry, and is one of the main attraction for tourists and visitors. The festival is celebrated in honor of the great Bathala, the almighty god of the ethnic tribes in Mt. Apo,  in which they gather altogether during harvest time to give gratitude to.
The festival also features races for native and modern motorized boats in the harbour, and the popular horse fight to which stallions fight over a mate with a mare.
The last days of the gaiety, the streets are crowded with beautiful maidens of Mindanao in colorful dresses dancing in native music or on decorated floats.
Completing this grandiose event is the contest of beauty for ByaíNeng ng Kadayawan (Miss Kadayawan)

Origin

The word “kadayawan” is derived from Mandayan “madayaw”, which describes something valuable, or anything beautiful in superiority, and is being used as a warm, friendly greeting in this part of the Philppines. It also expresses good fortune, and celebration of life in serenity.

History

In 1986,  a government-initiated program, ìUnlad Proyekto Davaoî, united DavaoeÒos after the martial law, and forever changed the tainted face of Davao as now it showcases peaceful and attractive, progressing place for tourists and investors as Davao boasts the famous highest peak, Mt. Apo, durian, king of fruits, what is known as the queen of orchids, the waling-waling, and being the home of Philippinesí national bird, the Phlippine Eagle.
Later 1988 when Mayor Rodrigo Duterte renamed the festivity to ìKadayawan sa Dabawî in celebration of wondrous blessings of ample flowers, fruits, and rich culture.

In Succession

The festival has gone so popular and has been tagged the mother of other festivals in the region as it symbolizes the artistic cultural and historical heritage of Davao, in honor of their ancestral lumads for which the people are gratitious for the bountiful blessings.

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