Mayaw - Mayaw Festival of Pinabacdao, Samar- Aliwan Fiesta 2015 3rd Place.
Mayaw - Mayaw is a stylized dance based on an ancient pagan religious ritual called mayaw or gamit in the Waray dialect. There is said to be at least five different rituals involved in the mayaw, each performed for a particular purpose. The mayaw, in a kind of Christianized version, may sometimes be performed as a sacrificial offering as a thanksgiving for a favor or blessing received from some heavenly being, as for example in the case of Pinabacdao, the “Patrona”, the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title the Lady of Sorrows. There is the one ritual dance that celebrates the La Dolorosa or the heavenly protectress of Pinabacdao. In this dance, the power of the Virgin Mary is invoked to drive away evil and her triumph is celebrated in an elaborate ceremony. A young woman representing the Patrona stands on platform of bamboo poles and is carried away, a symbolic representation of the great honor given to her by her own people.
