Karansa Festival is Thanksgiving for Pottery-Making Livelihood

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KARANSA FESTIVAL

Photo from: http://mycebuphotoblog.com/2007/09/21/ay-karansa/

Karansa Festival is a popular merry-making celebration among the inhabitants of Danao, Cebu Province. The festivity includes various dancing performances, eating and drinking in celebration to the area’s pottery-making livelihood. It is celebrated annually on the third Sunday of September and in honor to the city’s patron saint – Santo Tomas de Villanueva.

The festival is primarily a happy and playful dancing and prancing activity in coordination with the rhythm of music, beating of the drums and occasional loud shouts. The pot-makers dance, sing, eat and drink coconut wine after a day’s pottery-making work using four basic steps – swaying (kiay), shaking (karag and kurug) and juddering (karahay).

Nowadays, these four dance steps are being performed by well-choreographed teams from elementary and high schools in the area. Read More: http://www.cebu-bluewaters.com/karansa-festival.html

Photo from: http://www.philippine-online-travel.com/philippine-festival/karansa-festival-danao-cebu/

Filipinos are known to be among the hardest working people in the world. Due to this, a good number of companies around the world prefer hiring Filipinos as their employees compared to other nationalities. The Karansa Festival of Danao essentially celebrates the hard work people put in during the day, particularly the potters of Danao City.

People have different ways of expressing joy and happiness. In Danao, they use the word “karansa.” According to Karansa Foundation president Adano T. Roble, the word karansa is an expression of thanksgiving among the people. The term is native to Danao, especially among the residents of Barangay Suba who are known to be good potters. These potters would perform dance steps at the end of the day to celebrate the hard work they put into their craft. The term is also associated with dancing to a beat.

Photo from: http://philippinestravelsite.com/september-festivals-in-the-philippines/

The people of Danao known as Danaowanons celebrate the Karansa Festival through dancing. They commemorate the festival as a thanksgiving for their accomplished work and bountiful blessings they received from the town’s patron saint, Sr. Sto. Thomas de Villanueva.

“Karansa” is a local term which means to rejoice and have fun.

One of the well-known products of Danao City, Cebu is pottery. Majority of Danaowanons’ livelihood is from clay ceramics. Karansa were performed by the potters while waiting for their clay pots to be baked. They usually drink tuba (coconut wine) to relax and at the same time dance as an expression of gratitude after a hard day’s work.

Karansa Festival started in 1999, it highlights different activities and events such as the street dancing competition.

Basic dance steps of Karansa: