Skip to main content

San sadto pa daw...

To the Visayans of Samar and Leyte, where this blogger came from - san sadto pa daw literally means (approximately) "the ways back then".  Of course, the expression is uttered with longing, reminiscing, or feeling sorry for something lost or wasted!  I'm not a "prophet of doom", certainly.  I only want something to happen.  Something, which is not worth a good night sleep because it quickened me to start doing a thing - writing on a blog.

 For the present-day Filipinos' consumerist attitude, nothing is more exciting than earning a living and having our needs and wants satisfied.  A consumerist myself, such attitude proved that a little box - smallest of its kind - seem to restrict me from knowing the breadth and depths of who am I, a FILIPINO.  With perennial problems hounding us all, will this blog which is intended to discuss Philippine dance culture be of paramount importance or relevance?  Well, any answer will be correct.  'Yes', 'no', 'maybe yes' or 'maybe no'.  With such strong Asian principle of duality, my question or my purpose will both be heeded to or will fall on deaf ears.  So, I think I need to do this, anyway!
Time is long for those who wait.
Time is short for those who fear.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Laygay Samarnon Series, No. 4 - "AN IROY NGA TUNA" (Samar-Leyte)

Scanning through my collection of Philippine folk song books, I find it easier to find samples of songs which express pride of one's ethnicity, especially, the noteworthy virtues of each people group's maidens/womenfolk: industrious, beautiful, socially-accomplished, good example, modest, peerless, and so on. Folk songs like the Babaeng Bikolana, the Kapampangan  Ing Manai, the Tagalog Ang Dalagang Tagabukid and Lulay ; the Waray An Marol (featured earlier in this blog's series, No. 3) , the Ilocana a Nadayag and the Daragang Taga-Cuyo  of Palawan all take pride in the prime qualities of their womenfolk. However, our love for the Filipinoness outside our own ethnicity is rather rare in the themes of our folk songs. That could be safe, probably, to presume that there could be a lot of folk songs which embody the ardent love for one's place of origin: a town, a province, an island, a region or an island group; however, for folk songs with theme of love for our country co...
Post a Comment
Read more

INDAW SA BALITAW - Philippine Folk Song (Tagalog)

This old song might have been very famous during the late part of the 19th century. Its music appeared in many scores around that time, say for example, in Manuel Walls y Merino' s La Musica Popular de Filipinas  its music was presented as El Balitao. Merino's short description of this balitaw  (dance-song) is very interesting, and is here quoted in its entirety as translated to English: " This dance is the most popular in the Philippines. It is generally played more than it is danced, and its figures come to be a specie of jota, although without the variety and elegance of this. It is usually played by bands or orchestras, or simply by guitars. This dance is so popular and the Indios have so much affection to it, that it is often said that as an indigenous person hears the balitaw, even if his father has died, he begins to dance it. "   During the America era, this song again appeared in the "Philippine Music Horizons" as the " Kettle Song " or th...
Post a Comment
Read more

SANTA CLARANG PINUNG-PINO - Philippine Folk Song (Tagalog)

Annually, Obando town in Bulacan honors three saints – Santa Clara (the most famous of the three), La Virgen de Salambao, and San Pascual Baylon. Each saint has a feast day set aside where they are moved in a procession accompanied by dancing through the narrow streets of the town. The women devotee-dancers are dressed in bright baro’t saya or balintawak with matching flowered hat, waving buri fans which are similarly decorated with flowers and colorful ribbons. Men sport camisa de chinos of old while others use contemporary flowered shirts. Each saint is prayed to for specific favors sought – Santa Clara for a female mate, San Pascual for a male mate and the Virgen de Salambao, for a child. Different saints for different favors cause devotees to pray to a different saint for a different favor in a merry mix-up confusion. The sure-fire solution was to pray to all three in one kneeling. In fact, Santa Clara is always inadvertently approached by barren couples for a child. The Ob...
Post a Comment
Read more