Christmas nights in Bohol are incomplete without caroling. They can be preschool kids from the neighborhood using sticks, empty cans, or makeshift tambourines. Or a teen crew from the nearby high school, their songs bearing the traces of hip-hop punk covers of popular Christmas songs.
And then there can be a whole group of performers: a full rondalla, a community choir, and dancer-actors.
With the modern-day caroling, old people can only reminisce the solemn retelling of the events that led to the nativity and the fleeing of the Holy Family which is told in melodic verse and song.
In Bohol, there were two caroling performances, with the performers not just belting out and jiggling the soda-cap-strung tambourine, empty can percussions, or sticks as castanets.
Sometimes called comparza in Bohol, this band of musicians accompany a community choir in the caroling performance of ige-ige, which recounts the story of Joseph and Mary seeking a room in Bethlehem. (PIA Bohol)
IGUE-IGUE (eviction)
Igue-igue (ige-ige) recounts the story in the Book of Luke, when Joseph and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem to comply with the imperial command that all individuals should return to their ancestral towns “that all the world should be taxed.”
Mary was pregnant at that time they had to go back to Bethlehem to be counted. Unfortunately, they found no room to stay.
Ige-ige then tells the story in song and verse how the couple knocked on people’s doors to find a room to rest, only to be rejected.
The caroling group includes a full rondalla with at least a banduria, tenor, ukulele, six-stringed guitar, and an acoustic bass guitar called bajo de arco. It also has a group of singers who follow the melody but a few notes lower or higher.
Since it involves dialogues to be sung by Joseph and the home owners, the igue-igue becomes a challenge to the homeowner who has to also belt out his refusal accompanied by the band.
Often done at the yard, the daygon performance starts with the narrator announcing the call for census and ends with “ang sugo sa hari, dili na mabawi.”
(The King’s order cannot be repealed).
The band starts and the singers sing the journey of the couple in two or three stanzas, or until Mary and Joseph arrive at the door and knock. Then Joseph sings a pleading for the home owners to allow them a room to rest.
The homeowner then sizes up the couple. Seeing them poor, they reject them, singing their refusal.
Pahawa, pahawa,
mga tawo nga banyaga,
wala ba kamo magtan-aw,
ang inyong dagway hugaw
Wala na kami lawak nga inyong kapatulgan
Busa, pamahawa mo niining akong tugkaran
(Go away, go away
Strangers, don’t you see
You faces are dirty
We do not have place for you to stay
From my threshold, go away.)
This exchange can last from three to ten stanzas, until the home owner finally drives the couple out of the yard, thus igue-igue(eviction).
The announcement of the angels prompt the shepherds to wake up and go to Bethlehem to worship the Child King. (PIA Bohol)
PASTORES
Another popular and seemingly vanishing daygon tradition is Daygon sa Pastores.
The performance narrates the story of Luke 2:8-20, where an angel awakens the sleeping shepherds tending a flock and shares the good news: “Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
In response, the shepherds gather and break off into song:
Vamos, pastores vamos, sa Belen, kita mangadto,
atong subayon, ang Dios nga nagpakatawo.
(Shepherds, let’s go to Bethlehem, and see the baby God.)
The daygon is sung in front of the Nativity scene. The shepherds are often a pair of male and female actors dressed like the Mexicans, wearing vaquero hats, and boots, or the Middle Eastern version with long flowing dresses of the Arab region and shemaghs to protect them from the cold and heat. They are accompanied by a full rondalla, sometimes with a community choir.
As the Pastores originate from Spain in 1812 and brought to the Philippines via Mexico, the performers use castanets, maracas, floral arches, and castanets, and the music also provides hints of the South American influence.
The performance often starts with the encounter with the angels scene leading to the Gloria in Excelcis Deo sang by the choir. Then the shepherds gather their sheep and herd them to Bethlehem in search of the child, and they find the family gathered in the animal shed.
Then the offering starts.
Si Soling ang akong ngalan,
Pobre intawon nga pastores
Niay karnero akong gasa,
Ihalad sa Mesia.
(Soling is my name,
Poor shepherd I am
Here’s a lamb as my gift
My offer to the Messiah)
PASKO MEXICANO. The Pastores, tracing its influence to the Mexicans, introduced the musical instruments castanets, maracas, and tambourines to the Bohol tradition. (PIA Bohol)
Traditional daygon
Do our elders have a reason for missing the traditional daygons? Maybe, as the techno-vibe of the modern carols can hardly capture the solemnity, pomp, and pageantry of the old daygons.
In the past, a daygon could stay in a house for two hours. The performers can enjoy suman and a cup of sikwate. The home owners who get visited by the old carolers feel blessed, as they look forward to the next Christmas daygon. (RAHC/PIA7 Bohol)
