LAGAWE,Ifugao - The third Provincial Festival on the chanting of the Ifugao epic called "Hud-hud" was recently held here participated by the young pupils and elders coming from the different schools and municipalities of the province.
This activity was conducted as a continuing effort to preserve and transmit the intangible heritage of the Ifugao forefathers to the younger generation through the various Schools of Living Traditions established in selected educational institutions of the province through the assistance of the National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA) and the Ifugao Provincial government.
The Ifugao "Hud-hud" was declared by the United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity due to its immense literary significance.
It is an epical story in Ifugao mythology consisting of more than 200 episodes and believed to have surpassed the Greek’s epic "Iliad and the Odyssey".
The story chanted in the Ifugao dialect narrates the heroic feats and deeds of the mythological Ifugao ancestor named Bugan and Aliguyon and their respective families.
The hud-hud is chanted during the rice harvest season to ease the monotony and back-breaking task of reaping the Ifugao native rice called "tinnawon" or yearly rice produce.
A lead chanter will start the first few lines of the story and followed in chorus by the members of the group joining rice harvest.
It is also sung during the wake of a dead family member or during the vigil of the exhumed bones of a family member by the people who gathered for the nightly vigil and ceremony to pass the time away and as a sort of amusement.
The hud-hud has various titles called "Hud-hud Bugan Nak Pangaiwan" usually sung during the rice harvest, "Bugan Nak Pangaiwan ad Gonhadan", "Aliguyon ad Dayyagen", "Alighuyon ad Hildungan", "Hi Aliguyon ad Habiyan", "Bugan nak Dulnuan nak Pangaiwan", "Aliguyon Nak Amtalao", "Kulbabang Bugan" and "Aliguyon an Hi Duwog" chanted during death or "Binogwa" (vigil over an exhumed human bones).
The activity is expected to be done as a yearly affair to assure its mastery and propagation among the younger Ifugao generation. **Dan B. Codamon/PIA Ifugao
