SULADS STORIES

THE MANOBO WEDDING CEREMONY

by Myna Consolacion Buta

Lawatano Mission School

February, 1997

We were so excited for the long awaited wedding.  My partner and I were for the first time going to witness a Manobo wedding.  At last, on February 17, 1997, about 1:00 p.m. the groom and his relatives arrived at Lawatano from Dao.  Dao is a nearby village taking only four hours to hike to Lawatano.  The bride was from Lawatano where I was assigned as a student missionary.  She was the daughter of Datu Samuel, one of the datus of the village.

When the grooms party arrived, they occupied the two school rooms to prepare themselves for the wedding.  Someone shaved the eyebrows of the groom and painted around his eyes with white rice powder which they call in the Manobo language, “antis”.  Everybody was busy preparing, putting finishing touches on their faces with lipstick and make-up and eye shadow.  They adorned themselves with their beautiful and colorful “baliog” or necklaces.

Then at about 3:00, the bride and groom met in a house newly built by the father of the bride.  One of the datus got a chicken for what they called “gaamuadas” or by killing the chicken, they rid the house of evil spirits and any bad omens before the groom entered the house of the bride.

The house where the bride was staying was crowded with the village folks and we had a difficult time getting a place to take good pictures because of the crowd.  The groom and bride were each covered with a blanket.  The ceremony finally started and all the village people were happy.  Laughter filled the air.  The bride’s relatives gave her to the groom’s relatives and then the groom’s relatives gave him to the bride’s relatives.

The official solemnizing the wedding was a woman called a “Bai” or chief.  She commanded the two of them to sit down facing each other.  The Bai held in her hand some cooked rice wrapped in a banana leaf.  In the Manobo language it is called “linupot”.  The Bai unwrapped the cooked rice and slowly got some of it and formed it into balls using her bare hands.  She gave some to the groom and the bride.  The relatives all sat around watching the couple eat their share of the rice first.  Then the relatives devoured the remains.  After all had eaten, the Bai told the couple to hug each other.  Laughter broke out as this was done. 

Under the house, some of the village folks were cooking food and the smoke came up through the floor but none of us minded even though the smoke irritated our noses and eyes.  It was quite hot.  We were all there to witness the happenings of the wedding in spite of all the pushing and shoving of the people.

The couple were then seated in a special seat while the datus and other high ranking members of the village sat around in the center of the house.  The father of the bride, Datu Samuel, had a handful of “aguloy” or corn seeds.  Datu Banog of Dao, who is a Seventh-day Adventist, also had a handful of corn seeds.  The corn seed was a symbol of the value of a carabao.  In terms of money, that is about P1,000.  They were counting up the expenses of the wedding.  Each of the datus counting anything from the beginning of the proposal until the time of the wedding by using the corn seeds.  The groom’s family and relatives gave a dowry to the bride of money, two horses and a carabao.

Even though it was a rainy day, we enjoyed the day.  It was a very memorable day for everyone.