The Lanzones Festivals

 Lanzones Festival is an annual thanksgiving celebration for Camiguin Island's bountiful harvest. The town of Mambajao holds the feast during the third week of October, in time for the season of the tropical fruit lanzones. The province of Camiguin is known for having the sweetest lanzones among the abundant sources of the fruit along the north-central coast of Mindanao. The locals and tourists enjoy this weeklong celebration with a line-up of activities showcasing the richness culture in Camiguin like street dancing, grand lanzones parade, agri-cottage industry products exhibits, and beauty pageants. Aside from this, the people also await the annual barangay beautification contest, indigenous sports, and tableau of local culture within the week.

It is believed that the celebration started with the local legend about a childless couple who wished for a child from a lanzones tree fairy. The fairy granted them a healthy baby boy but the couple forgot to thank her. One day, a suspicious-looking woman approached their child while he was playing. The boy suddenly fell unconscious. His parents thought that it was the lanzones fairy who had enchanted the boy. The couple decided to perform a ritual to appease the fairy and, sure enough, the child became well again.

The following year, the couple invited the neighboring barrio to participate in the thanksgiving ritual. From then on, the ritual became an annual festivity in Camiguin to recreate the ceremonies done by the ancient forefathers of the island to the gods that provide good weather and abundant harvest.

The Lanzones fruit is a major source of the Camiguin Islands' livelihood and it is for the annual harvest that they celebrate this thanksgiving day. Houses, carriages, street poles and even people are decorated with lanzones and lanzones leaves. townsfolk dance in joy abandon in commemoration of the legend that a beautiful, unknown maiden took from the its former bitter flavor to leave only its luscious, sweet taste.    

Lanzones festival to lure tourists despite Sulu, Lanao conflicts
Terry C. Betonio / MindaNews/ 16 October 2002

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- Despite the continued military offensives in Sulu and Lanao provinces, the Department of Tourism (DOT) here in Region 10 expressed confidence that hundreds of visitors would still flock to Camiguin to witness the island’s annual attraction, the Lanzones Festival, which starts , Oct. 17, until Sunday.

Among the activities lined up for this year’s festival are agro-industrial techno trade fair, trek to the summit of Mt. Hibok-Hibok, Governor’s Cup open lawn tennis tournament for men, the annual search for Mutya sa Buahanan, farm tour and lanzones picking, street dancing contest and tableau presentation featuring Camiguingnons in native attire.

San Miguel Corp. will also hold an “Oktoberfest” featuring a live band from Cebu at the gymnasium in Mambajao.

Last year, tropical storm Nanang killed 134 people and left hundreds missing. Damage to properties and infrastructure was pegged at about P80 million.

But Pabayo said with the help of the government and different private agencies, the residents managed to rise up and continue with their lives despite the trauma that they had gone through.

“Life goes on in Camiguin after that tragedy. Camiguin is a very beautiful place with so much to offer to tourists,” she said.

Camiguin, which came from the word “Kamagong,” the name of a tree in the ebony family, is a pear-shaped volcanic island lying in the Bohol Sea some 54 kilometers southeast of Chocolate Hills and 10 kilometers north of Misamis Oriental.

It has five municipalities -- Mambajao (capital), Catarman, Sagay, Guinsiliban and Mahinog -- and measures approximately 29,000 hectares with a circumferential road measuring 64 kms.

Old Spanish documents indicate that the great explorers, Ferdinand Magellan and Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, landed in Camiguin in 1521 and 1565, respectively. But it was not until 1598 when the Spanish settlement was established in what later came to be the Guinsiliban town.

The first major settlement of the Spanish era was Catarman in 1679. This grew and prospered to what is now known as Bonbon. The 1871 Mt. Vulcan Daan eruption destroyed these towns, the remains of which are the ancient Spanish church and convent to the present center town of Catarman.

Among the tourist attractions of Camiguin are the White Island, Mantigue Island, Katibawasan Falls, Sto. Ni�o Cold Spring, Hibok-Hibok Crater, Ardent Hot Spring, Tangub Hot Spring and a number of beautiful private beach resorts.

But the island’s main come-on to tourists is the Lanzones Festival, normally held every third week of October. It is a four-day grand festival of the island’s agriculture and tourism industries highlighted by a tableau of local culture and a grand parade of lanzones, the golden sweet fruit found abundantly in the entire province. It is Camiguin’s contribution to Mindanao as a cultural destination.

The Lanzones festival is the residents’ way of giving thanks to a bountiful harvest not only for lanzones but other agricultural products.