Philippines Embassy celebrates Kadayawan Festival

Festival is a thanksgiving event for the gifts of nature, culture, harvest, and serenity of life

ISLAMABAD:

The Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines in Pakistan on Saturday celebrated the ‘Kadayawan Festival’ at the Chancery of the Embassy of the Philippines in Islamabad for the Diplomatic Corps and other guests.

The festival was celebrated at the Domingo Lucenario Hall, Chancery of the Embassy of the Philippines in Islamabad, through a watch party and on-the-spot making of a Puto Maya (Rice cake) and Sikwate (native Philippine chocolate), for the guests of the event.

The Kadayawan festival, the main festival of Davao City located in the Southern Philippines, is held every August and is a celebration of life, a thanksgiving for the gifts of nature, the wealth of culture, the bounties of harvest, and serenity of living.

The event was hosted by Sumaira Domasig Khan Bagaporo, spouse of the Embassy’s Officer-in-Charge, Dan Erwin C. Bagaporo. In her welcome remarks, Sumaira compared the essence of the festival to a mother who unconditionally provides food to her children, adding that in the same way, nature provides food for all people on this planet. She said that as we say thanks for the blessing of food, family, and joy, we keep to heart the practice of not wasting such blessings and give importance to the conservation and appropriate use of what we are given.

The event began with a watch party that featured a short video of the actual Kadayawan Festival celebration in Davao City, followed by an instructional video on how to make Puto Maya and Sikwate (traditional Philippine cuisine). All the participants were called to the front to plate their own version of Puto Maya using the provided pre-cooked rice and banana leaves.

A fun competition was held to see which participant or pair of participants could make the best-designed puto maya plate, along with the participants voting for who they think was the best-designed plate among themselves.

Abdul Osman Mubdi, the Acting High Commissioner of Brunei, won first place with his Japanese-inspired design that resembled a plate of sushi. Peter Piwi Ophoff and Saraswathi Pasupathy, won second place with their design which paid homage to the volcanoes in the Philippines. Gaurav Thakur from the Indian High Commission, Emilia Deddy from the Malaysian High Commission, and the pair of Henny Lydia from the Indonesian Embassy and Nurhaziqah Hakip, all tied for third place.

The event was attended by diplomats from the High Commissions of Malaysia, Australia, Brunei, Mauritius and India, and from the embassies of Indonesia, International Federation of the Red Cross. Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and the Philippine Embassy’s media partners.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2022.