Tales from the Tinagba Festival
Bicolano legend tells of a people who lived under the shadow of a mighty mountain where the gods were said to reside. Here they spent their years giving birth, nurturing, planting, harvesting, dying. They endured the elements, fought wars against neighboring tribes, and survived the challenges of a pre-historic existence. But a time came when, no matter how hard they labored and toiled, the land refused to yield its fruit. The sun burned and the dry ground cracked under its glare. In desperation, the people begged the gods for mercy.
Apparently, their supplication reached divine ears and in no time at all, refreshing rain poured out from the skies. The fallow earth drank thirstily and life sprung forth from seeds once more. Grateful for the gods' blessings, the people rejoiced and remembered this kindness through rituals and festivities celebrated since then.
This is the story that serves as the backdrop for the Tinagba Festival held annually in Iriga City in the Bicol region. Although the celebration may have been held sporadically throughout the centuries, it was revived in the '70s by the late Atty. Jose Calleja Reyes, whose research among the accounts of Franciscan chroniclers became the basis for the festival.
An excerpt from "Sumagang," the official newsletter of the City of Iriga, offers this description: "The ritual consists of offering to Gugurang (a deity) of the fruits of the land called Himoloan, which are consumed at once in a raucous feast. The order by which they observe the celebration is as follows: they prepare the table for the feast, as in the modern long-capes, which they call salangat and which they fill up with various viands, after which the baliana recites the soraque, a religious song chanted for the benefit of Gugurang, which is continually chanted by a chorus of women. After their chanting, they partake of the feast..."