My Hometown's Pride | Bonok-Bonok Festival | The Frugal Traveler's Guide

in #travel5 years ago

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Hello itinerants all over the world and steemit community! These past couple of months have been such a crazy roller coaster ride of my life by far. There are so many things happened in my personal, family and career which really greatly affected me to get demotivated and stopped me from doing the things I love. I really do love to share everything to you and I decided to start it with positive ones.

I am bringing you today in our beloved hometown Surigao, Philippines. It is known for being the "The City of Island Adventures". It has a lot more to offer more than satisfying you with mouth-watering dishes, filling your souls in by connecting you to the nature, meeting adorable and friendly people. My hometown celebrates this so called "Bonok-Bonok Marajaw Karajaw Festival", pride of every Surigaonons. It is an ethnic and religious ritual celebrated in some occasions such as traditional wedding, celebrating the city anniversary, thanksgiving and worship.

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The festival is celebrated through street dance competition by different contingents representing their respective municipalities' traditions and cultures. Basically, the term "Bonok-Bonok" is originated from the early settlers in the town and gotten from an ancestral festivity and tradition. It is used to be represented by different village chieftains and babaeyons.

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Get mesmerized by colorful costumes, huge props and gorgeous dancers . Look at this dancer wearing a floral costume representing their municipality. This is truly one of the happiest celebration you can witness in the town.


This year's Bonok-Bonok Festival theme is "Sajaw para sa Kalinaw" which means "Dance for Peace". , which is very timely and relevant to share awareness and spreading camaraderie in the community. The Island of Mindanao has been through a lot this year affected by natural disasters terrorism, and socio-government and political issues.

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The festival is all about showcasing each amazing and unique talents and cultures of the participants' municipality. This is basically telling the people a story through dancing. It shows people a glimpse of the traditions and its cultures.


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Truly the Bonok-Bonok festival is a display of Surigao's colorful tribal culture through moving and is normally led by gorgeous queens gracefully dancing and slaying every beats of the tribe's traditional music. The festival queens must find their ways to stand out among the rest so that they will be reigned as this year's festival queen.


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The performances of the Festival Queens are just one of the most anticipated part of the celebration. It is also one of the important activities because they will be dancing all through out the parade while carrying the statuette of the town's religious saint, Sr. San Nicolas de Tolentino.


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The queen represents the light that enters the darkest parts of humanity. They carry the statuette of the saint to promote and highlight the need to spread awareness for genuine, everlasting and peaceful community in Mindanao and all over the country.


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The street dancing starts with a traditional ritual mamanwa dance to drive the evil spirits away and have a peaceful and successful celebration. Another elements that gives the festival flavors are the musical bands giving the loud sounds of trumpets and other percussion. When I was high school I have taken part such cultural activity. I was once a tribal dancer and participated the Bonok-Bonok festival. I can really say that it's never easy to dance all throughout the parade while basking under the heat of the sun. It's basically a whole-day performance and ends late at night. Nevertheless, it doesn't give us the reason to discontinue and make the people happy with the performances. It's just very gratifying to know you have made the people happy and offered your time and effort for the town's patron saint.

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The contingents are fighting for the awards of best festival queen, best in musicality, best in costume, best in choreography, and best in street dancing. Most of the acts of the participants show the importance of the rain for a bountiful harvest. That's why the story line mainly focuses about the early settlers way of living. The themes actually depend on the municipalities' traditions, culture and history.

Bonok-Bonok Marajaw Karajaw Festival has truly become the sought after festival in the Island of Mindanao. The festival also concurs with other cultural events which makes it one of the grandest celebration in the city. It is also visited by many foreigners, famous celebrities and political figures.

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That's basically it, if it happens that you have visited the place already, please care to share your experiences in the comment section below. Everyone's glad to hear the stories of yours! Just always remember that learning is a lifetime process. You can learn from your experiences, trips and from other people. The world is so vast. Explore and Learn! Traveling isn't is as expensive as you think! There's a so called travelling on a frugal way with a purpose!

DEUCES!

Regards,
@itinerantph

CONNECT WITH ME

Instagram: @jee_diez
Facebook: https://facebook.com/itinerantphblog/
Email: [email protected]

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PLEASE SAY HI TO MY NIECES! =)

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Your nieces look so cute. This looks alot like sinulog, yeah? Good to see you back herr ❤

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Thank you for the kind words @purpletanzanite. I'll them that you find them cute :D And yes, it looks alot like sinulog but sinulog is quite bigger than this. I am also happy to see you here. Where are you at now?

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