Ginum and Amorsolo painting

Dec. 15, 2008

DAVAO CITY- The ongoing exhibit at the Davao Museum connects the great Amorsolos painting Fruit Harvesting with the common aspiration of Davaos Bagobo tribe for a bountiful harvest.

Celebrating Ginum: A Festival for a Bountiful Harvest, runs at the Davao Museum until January 13 next year, the 13th of the 20 Amorsolo retrospective satellite exhibits slated around the country.

The satellite exhibit is a joint presentation of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila and the Davao Museum for His Heart, Our Heart Amorsolo Retrospective.

The Amorsolo Retrospective, opened last September 26 at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, is a four-month multi-venue exhibition of Amorsolos finest works to remember National Artist Fernando Amorsolo and his fruitful life in the arts.

NOSTALGIA. A reproduction of Armorsolo’s Fruit Harvesting (1950) on display at the Davao Museum until January 13 next year. (davaotoday.com photo by Jonald Mahinay)

Early Western scholars, like Mateo Gisbert (1886), Faye Cooper Cole (1912-1913) and Laura Benedict (1916) had referred to Ginum as a Bagobo pre-planting festival, when the community offer sacrifices to the spirits for a good harvest.

But Moniko Cayog, the Bagobo chairperson of the indigenous peoples group Kalumaran, said Ginum is the Bagobo word for drinking, usually done by the Bagobos after a good harvest to give thanks to the spirits. Ginum accompanies the Anig, the post-harvest celebration when the Bagobos drink tuba or any wine to celebrate. Anig usually takes place in January or in the last quarter of the year, according to Cayog.

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