Dumaguete City has concluded its National Heritage Month celebration with the theme Summer Beats of the Past.
City Tourism Officer Woodrow Maquiling Jr. said the observance presented a lot of activities that would relate to the things that Dumagueteños did in the past.
Traditional games have been played for the Balik-Dulang Pinoy like palosebo, sack race, takyan, bato-lata, kayukok, among others.
At least 10 young participants from each barangay in Dumaguete City participated in the games.
A concert by the kids from the Jay Cyrus Creative Studio was held as “we are giving a public venue for them to be able to express and relive their talents as Dumagueteños,” Maquiling said.
To give honor and recognition to all mothers in Dumaguete, Mrs. Dumaguete pageant or the Ginang Ng Santacruzan presented mothers who have the guts to be part of the pageant, showing their talents and skills, and their beauty, said Maquiling.
Other activities include Birik-Birik fishing festival, a night of folk dances and songs, annual Santacruzan grand parade among others.
Maquiling said this is to revisit and relieve the traditional way of fishing in the past, and make the night more festive while a heritage concert and grand parade which has been participated in by different schools here in Dumaguete City, particularly St. Paul University, Silliman University, Foundation University.
Proclamation No. 439, signed on Aug. 11, 2003, declared the month of May as National Heritage Month “in recognition of the need to create among the people a consciousness, respect, and pride for the legacies of Filipino cultural history, and love of country.”
In 2009, the government formally made heritage conservation a legal mandate, by ratifying and implementing Republic Act 10066 or the National Heritage Act of 2009, empowering NCCA and its afiliated agencies in their policy-making and implementation of conservation programs. (PIA7-NegOr, with reports from Ina Isabelle Taburaza, SU Masscom intern)
