Of Calendars and Indigenous Identity

CULTURAL NOTES

Richard Kinnud

While flipping over the first page of the 12-page calendar I had at work, I remembered my paternal grandfather.  When I was a kid, I used to sit with him on side surface area of his rice field to drive away rice birds coming for a sip of the sap of the young rice grains.  There he would tell me folk tales or any thing that might come to his mind.  One of the things he told was on purportedly are the names of the months in the Ifugao language. 

    I can still recall the words Luyah, Upukna, Lodoh, Bakbakakku, Kitkitina, Ugahna, Daweh, Daptok, Hongang, Manabana, Okalna, Litong and Amaduyung.  I cannot exactly remember which one refers to each of the months in the calendar.  And you might have noticed, there are thirteen words mentioned yet there are only twelve months in the calendar.  But I do recall explanations that the names are actually referring to certain events or things observable at certain time.  Luyah, for instance, would refer to a time when it is a rest period as works in the rice fields are already done.  In the place where I was born, this rest time can be after planting that falls in about January.  Bakbakakku is a variation of the ba-o, a weed that grows with the rice grains and is visible at about April. 

    Kitkitina is a time when the rains drops at short intervals and Ugah is a time when the strong rains falls at longer period.  These could be about May or June.  Manabana is a time when plants in the surroundings such as in the forests, grass lands, and even on the rice ponds are growing robust, which is manaba in the vernacular, and that is about August or September in our place.  Amaduyung or ammaduyungon, was explained as a technique of carrying the young rice stalks from the seedbed to where it would be planted so it falls at about the planting season which is December.   There are explanations for the other terms but memory fails me as I write this.
    If you would ask though an Ifugao today, the probability is that many do not know those names of months in the indigenous language.    My guess is that it was an attempt by early educators to localize the names just like how they translated anthems and Christian prayers in the language.  Apparently, it did not progress as those names are not known today.
    If the query is on an indigenous calendar, some might point to the calendar of activities in the rice fields or the agricultural calendar.  It starts with the preparation of the rice field up to harvest.  The preparation of the field includes ahilamun (the time when the rice stalks and weeds which may have grown in the rice paddies are weeded and left to decay as fertilizer of the paddy), ahigabut (meaning to weed out especially the slopes at the side of the paddy and its dikes),  ahigaud (literally meaning the use of spade which is gaud in the vernacular or other implements to till the soil of the paddy or fix the dikes),  ahihopnak (the time of preparing the rice seedlings); ahiboge (the time to plant); ahi-agoo (the time to clean weeds in between the growing rice plants), ahi-abul (the time to guard the fruiting rice grains from birds), and ahi-botok (harvest time). 

    As can be seen, the “calendar” refers to scheduled works in the rice fields which in earlier times is the primary source of living of the Ifugaos.  But it is not as simple as that as these are intertwined with certain rituals which are done before or during each period.  These are lost practices in the present religion adapted.  I have heard about “harvest festivals” in certain churches but surely was not part of formal liturgical calendars.
    I am not sure if other ethno-linguistic groups have translations of the names of the months in the universally used calendars or if they have indigenous calendars.  If the translations were popularized or if there are indigenous calendars, it would serve well in ethnic identity. 
    It won’t be denied that the Gregorian calendar is very much functional and convenient for most today.  And without indigenous calendars, these too can be used to promote cultural identity.  The simplest is the use of the physical copy of the calendars as information dissemination material with pictures and information on culture on appropriate spaces.  Another would be to fill the calendar with events that promotes identity.  Some successful illustration would be the Pangabenga of Baguio in February, Strawberry Festival of La Trinidad in March, Lang-ay of Bontoc in April, Gotad ad Ifugao in June, and  Adivay in Benguet among others. 
    Even the religious realm can be influenced.  Panag-apoy in Sagada is significant example.  So could there be revival of “hongan di page” or any other lost religious traditions in communities to be eventually included in local calendars?
    There are local governments who are documenting them.  We hope it wouldn’t just be for the libraries and museums but soon again be put to practice.  Of course, it is not regressing to the past but fitting identity into the present culture which most of us might refer to as modern even as it is developing.