This post may seem outdated. I just thought of blogging about it. Have you heard of Tinagba?
Tinagba is an annual festival held in Iriga City every 11th of February. It is an activity which reenacts the offering of first harvest. It also coincides with the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.This ancient Bicolano festival features a parade of bullcarts filled with fruits, vegetables, crops and other farm products. It also showcases streetdancers in colorful costumes.
In the past, the parade always ends at the Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto atop the so-called Calvario Hill, where the harvests will be offered. In the recent years, i learned that it was no longer that. They made use of the parish grounds or the city park to culminate the event.
After almost six years of not witnessing the said festival, I finally got the chance last 2007. The photos on this post were taken last Tinagba 2007 since I was not able to watch the festival these past two years (again).
I hope to catch the event next year and get better pictures... and stories, as well.
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3 comments:
Hi, liza! Nice blog! Marami ka na rin palang naisulat... at photographer ka rin pala! Galing naman...
Hi, Ella.. thanks!?.. daan ka ulit minsan.. wag mo ko kalimutan i-update kung "sigurado ka na", ha?.. =)
Tinagba is an ancient folk practice that may have predated Spanish colonization. The offering of goods to the gods/dieties (mostly agricultural produce) as gratitude for a bountiful harvest was a pagan practice considered the norm during that time.
Up until the 1960s while growing up as a sacristan in Polangui, Albay people still observe this festival in May. They would bring their best harvest of rice,vegetables, fruits, chickens and other produce to the Church for the priest to bless, and leave them afterward for their offering. The tinagba may seem a quaint, even curious practice in these modern times but should be preserved for future generations.
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