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Kagayha-an | RAI Bollozos Sanchez | MT
Mindanaotoday.com | Kagayha-an
BY: RAI Bollozos Sanchez
HI there!
First, let me apologize for not submitting anything last week. I got busy grading because it was the end of the “Intersession Term.”
Second, I have also been preparing my class schedules since August starts the first semester of this year’s school year.
Nevertheless, August is Cagayan de Oro City’s fiesta month.
I was always asked, “what is the best way to celebrate the city fiesta?” Well, aside from the regular visits to the malls and carnivals, they should also visit the funfairs at Gaston Park and witness the parades and the carnival show.
Lastly, the fun activities at the Cagayan de Oro River, especially the dragon boat competition, which I wish I could bear witness firsthand. Bekenemen… Lol.
For me, the best way to revel in the fiesta celebration is to celebrate its origins, history, and oral traditions.
Thus, as a historian, I am always asked, “where the name Cagayan gets its history?”
Contemporarily, Cagayan de Oro is known as the “City of Golden Friendship, the Gateway of the South, or the City of Gold.”
Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the indigenous settlers lived near the riverbanks and were also known for their gold panning activities.
Historically assumed, the first settlers were the Higaonons. They reside near the riverbanks full of Lambago trees; thus, the first name of Cagayan was Kalambagohan.
However, the name Cagayan has a fascinating oral tradition. If we narrate the oral narrative of “how it was named?”
It will take more than a week to recount all the traditions. According to Fr. Francisco Demetrio, in his book The Local Historical Sources of Northern Mindanao, published by the Museo de Oro of Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan in 1995.
Common across the oral traditions about the oral history of the name Cagayan, and one of the most popular “oral traditions” was from the Binukid, “Kagayha-an,” or “Kaayahan” which means “a place of shame.”
Legend has it that the original name was Kalambagohan, inhabited by the Bukidnons (led by their Datu Bagunsaribo, Bagunsalibo, Datu Bagani) and under the tributary of the Maguindanaoan Rajah Moda Samporna, who persistently raided the village and demanded its surrender.
Datu Bagani offered his daughter to Rajah Moda Samporna as a term for a “pact of peace.”
Captured by his beauty, he accepted the offer and decided to marry Datu’s daughter.
Instead of conquering the Maguindanaos conquering the Bukidnons, the result was the opposite. Because of the intermarriage, the Bukidnons beat the Maguindanaos.
Thus, the latter were ashamed; they went away and called the village “Kagayha-an,” or the place of shame.
Another narrative was about a daughter-princess of Datu Bagunsaribo named Cagayha-man, who was so beautiful that she had many suitors who Datu Bagunsaribo rejected because the suitors could not afford the dowry.
This was why she was named Cagayha-an because her admirers felt embarrassed. After all, they could not pay with the dowry.
Because of her beauty, even the river admired her and took her away through drowning.
Again, the origin of how we derived the name Cagayan will take more than a week to recount all the traditions.
But her history provided golden opportunities the city has given as a gift; the Kagay-anons, Christians, Muslims, and her Indigenous Communities deserve a golden celebration to commemorate her great history and culture!
Her unwavering acceptance of migrants and new businesses has shaped the city to whatever Kagay-anons thrive dreaming of – Cagayan de Oro is indeed the City of Gold! (MT)
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