Kadayawan Boosts Business
By E.O. Fuentes

Investment-wise businessmen from other parts of the country look down south, specially in Davao for farther and wider reach of their new and even relaunched products. And there is no better time to invest in their advertisement and promotions portfolio than on Kadayawan time in Davao. Davao's Kadayawan "fever" starts in June and even extends to September, a month after the Kadayawan festival on the 3rd week of August. Visitor arrivals in Davao City from June to September prove this.

The Icons of Davao
By E.O. Fuentes

In August every year Dabawenyos and tourists from other parts of the world take time to visit Davao to join their festival of thanksgiving for the land's bountiful harvest of fruits and flowers. This festival is called "Kadayawan," an expression in Dabawnon tongue which stands for anything excellent that brings good fortune. (Tesorero, Bert 1996).

Davao’s Kadayawan Country
By E.O. Fuentes

WHAT MAKES Davao an irresistible dream destination is its exotic beauty that greets the visitor in all its natural ambiance the moment he steps down the plane’s rump. This is Kadayawan country. “Kadayawan” is an expression in Dabawnon tongue which stands for anything excellent that brings fortune,” explained Bert Tesorero, a journalist-historian who is a Dabawenyo.

Kadayawan attracting tourists in Davao
By E.O. Fuentes

REVIVING folk customs and practices of praises and thanksgiving to the gods from a ritualistic people, may enable this Orchid City of the Philippines to attract more tourists this year and beyond. Kadayawan celebration, since 1996 has been lead sponsored by Kadayawan sa Dabaw Foundation in cooperation with the city government to boost Davao’s potentials as tourists’ destination in the South. This colorful cultural and thanksgiving festival of good harvest that their gods have showered upon them from the lands and forests – and calendar-dated on the 3rd week of August – may after all lure more tourists to come down South and rev up business in this city.

Lessons from Kadayawan sa Dabaw Festival ’92
By E.O. Fuentes

DAVAO CITY – Kadayawan is many things to many people. It is a ritual of thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest of cereals and fruits; ornamentals and orchids - all these and many more that give life to the people from year to year, from season to season, telescoped from time long past into the present so that this generation may come to terms with their roots and cultural heritage.

The Kadayawan genises
By E.O. Fuentes

Time was when there was no Apo Duwaling; neither was Kadayawan sa Dabaw festival dreamed of the celebration of Araw ng Dabaw was yet to be conceived. In some, davao, the city whose birthing was “induced” in 1931 by certain political undertones was already a promising urban center.

Honoring Davao
By E.O. Fuentes

KADAYAWAN festival observers and visitors who have been coming to Davao once every two or three years have been inquiring what new activities have been introduced in addition to the traditional Kadayawan activities.

Kadayawan of Davao
By E.O. Fuentes

Kadayawan, explains Bert Tesorero, is an expression in Dabawnon tongue which stands for anything excellent that brings good fortune. It is a derivative of an aboriginal word “dayao” which means good or madayaw, describing a thing that is valuable, superior, beneficial or profitable.” The word Kadayawan signifies and more popularly connotes thanksgiving for the bountiful gifts from Davao’s fertile land, green hills, forests, rivers and seas. This is reflected in our dances, music, traditions, and other rituals native to the place. These dances, and music are more quaint in their original version. In fact these are what tourists want to see and hear – something unique, something quaint, something indigenous. In 1986 Apo Duwaling, the precursor of the present Kadayawan sa Dabaw Festival, was launched “through the concerted effort of the city government and the multisectoral groups of the city aimed at restoring the reptutation of the city as the “Queen City of the South.”

What is Kadayawan
By E.O. Fuentes

WHAT IS IN KADAYAWAN that makes Dabawenyos and visitors look forward to its celebration? It is a thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest shared by everyone.