Hirinugyaw Suguidanonay 2017

Every end of the month of January or 1st week of February every year in the Philippines, my hometown named Calinog, always do celebrate the festival we call “Hirinugyaw Suguidanonay.”

During my high school years, I used to join in this festival either one of the dancers or one of the candidate for the beauty pageant called “Lin-ay Ka Calinog” were I would represent my school.

It was a great experience back then  to me and one of my most unforgetable moments in my life. 10 years later, which I recently experience going back to my hometown this January 2017, there are lots of changes and the festival is more fun than I expected it to be. They added another theme called “Linabugan Festival” were people cook the town specialties using the famous leaf vegetables that only found abundant in this town. And not to mention, I was invited to be one of the judges and of course I get to taste all of their foods which is pretty awesome experience.

Another thing that made me feel loved is when two of our famous Gown Designer Hector Totong Gellangarin and our local designer Yetyet Lopez invited me to wear their creations for the fashion show exclusive for the Hirinugyaw festival. It was a terrific feeling to wear their creations showing to people what we should be proud of.

For the highlights of the festival, I wasn’t really able to see the performance of the tribe contestant because it was so crowded and I can’t find a good location to watch. But I was able to take some photos.

Another cool thing is, they made a music video for the town’s festival theme song titled “Kanami Kang Calinog” means “Beautiful Calinog.” Click the link below to watch and listen.

Kanami Kang Calinog music video

And for the last and for most, spending time with my friends and family. 

Wait there is more…

I was able t o eat ballot!!! Yay!!!

These are the few things I did while I was spending my vacation in my hometown and I better be there every year and hopefully some American friends would go with me  to experience the same fun I had. 

Thanks for my hometown people for the warm welcome and love that you all have given me. I appreciate it very much. 

Calinog is where I belong and I will always come back. God bless Calinog. Looking forward to more improvements of this awesome town and its awesome people! See you soon again!

Lots of love,

Lin