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Boa Boahan

The Boa-Boahan festival is a cultural festival held every May 2nd in Nabua, Camarines Sur, Philippines. It originated from pagan rituals for fertility and thanksgiving. The festival includes reenactments of 13th century pagan rites where coconut embryos called "boa" were offered to deities. Locals believe eating young coconuts made people fertile. The highlight is colorful costumes during the dramatic revival of traditional pre-Spanish boa feasts.

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Josette Bonador
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3K views2 pages

Boa Boahan

The Boa-Boahan festival is a cultural festival held every May 2nd in Nabua, Camarines Sur, Philippines. It originated from pagan rituals for fertility and thanksgiving. The festival includes reenactments of 13th century pagan rites where coconut embryos called "boa" were offered to deities. Locals believe eating young coconuts made people fertile. The highlight is colorful costumes during the dramatic revival of traditional pre-Spanish boa feasts.

Uploaded by

Josette Bonador
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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BOA-BOAHAN FESTIVAL

Boa-Boahan is a colorful cultural festival held every 2nd of May at Nabua, Camarines Sur. This
festival is of pagan origin for fertility and thanksgiving. The dialect alinsangan is a word that
describes the characteristics of the early settlers of Nabua.
Introduced in 1975 to re-enact a legend of how the town's early settlers survived the big flood
that swept their area before the coming of the Spaniards. A big celebration is held in
thanksgiving to recount the Nabua Chieftain do rituals feeding only on young coconuts. The
coconut embryos is said to make the town folks fertile.
The highlight of the affair is the re-enactment of the 13th century pagan rites which is enriched
by colorful costumes. The rite is dramatic revival of the traditional boa feast during the pre-
Spanish era where pagans believed that the chains of coconut embryos called "Boa" are offered
to their old deities.
Source:
Regional Development Council V 

HISTORY
The Municipality of Nabua traces the historical origin of its name way back during
the Spanish Colonization. It was said that in 1571, an AugustinianFriar named Fray Alonzo
Gimenez reached one of the rancherias called Lupa which was then under Datu Panga
from Borneo. The good friar found persons inside the said rancheria cutting coconuts. He was
offered to partake the inside shoot of coconut which the natives called “BOA”. Immediately, the
good friar tagged the place as “NABUA” pronounced with his Spanish Accent. From that time
onwards this place become popularly known as NABUA.
In another version, a historian named Fray Felix Huerta claimed that the name came from
the story that the original sitio of the town is in the shape of the “BOA”, young embryo of the
coconut which was surrounded by five rancherias named Lupa, Antacodos, Sabang, Caobnan
and Binoyoan. Other believe otherwise and said it was centrally located in the middle of said
rancherias thus closely resembling a delicious “BOA” which children loved to eat. For a time, the
town was called “NABOBOWA” but years of long usage shortened and corrupted it to the
present name of NABUA.
In 1578, a group of Franciscan missionaries headed by Fray Pablo de Jesus and Fray
Bartolome Ruiz put up a church in a place known as Antacodos and there they placed a
big cross. These missionaries soon merged the villages of Lupa, Antacodos, Sabang and
Binoyoan into one place, which a t present is known as the town of Nabua. The
name Nabua was originally a longer one, Naboboa, from boa, the word for a young coconut
embryo.
In a research mission to Spain funded by the municipality, it was learned that Nabua was
officially established as a municipality on July 25, 1569.
Source: Wikipedia
Josette O. Bonador
12-HUMSS 1

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