Republic of the Philippines

Region III-Central Luzon

Tarlac State University
College of Arts and Social Sciences
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology

Submitted by:
Christine Jane B. Tabamo
AB Psychology - 1A

Submitted to:
Mrs. Anna Maria Soccorro
 The Wedding Dance
The Wedding Dance by Amador Daguio happens to be one of the most hurtful
stories in Philippine Literature set in a tribe in Cordillera Highlands, region known
for it’s in culture and it’s peoples’ obedience and conformity of tradition. The
unwritten law also referred as the Law of the Father here is their bases of their day
to day living and therefore, it is the one that controls the whole tribe. This story is
about a husband and wife named Awiyao and Lumnay who were married for seven
harvests but still were not able to bear a child of their own.
As for Awiyao to affirm virility and to establish his place among his tribesmen,
he had to look for another wife named Malidumay despite of his love for Lumnay.
This story shows the conflict between the personal love and the love of tribe and
culture, and in some cases, culture prevails. This shows how the culture prevents
Awiyao and Lumnay from their freedom to love each other for lifetime. If we dig
deeper to the situation, we can see that both Awiyao and Lumnay gave up their love
not only because of what the culture dictates but also to save each other from the
judgments of the society. If we tend to connect this story to the real life situation, we
can say that people before and today are truly bound with laws that must be followed
for our own welfare but sometimes we can also see these laws which control our own
freedom, happiness and even desires. Sometimes we just wanted to speak out our
thoughts, fight for what we think is right and try to question the law but then, we
just feel that there’s always something that pulls us back just like Lumnay.
The symbolism is interesting in that the darkness in the story symbolizes the
way Awiyao and Lumnay both feel at having to obey tribal custom and the 4 walls
of the house symbolize their imprisonment to old traditions. The smoldering embers
which become glowing coals symbolize their love for each other through it all and
the beads represent the tangible value of Awiyao's love for Lumnay inspite of the
fact that she had not given him a child.
For me, the moral lesson that I’ve learned from this story is the significance of
children in a couple’s life. It teaches us to be selfless for the person’s we love for them
to be happy. I suppose it would be that "true love never dies" and if you have true
love, it is better to defy tradition than to give in to the traditions which can kill or
separate true love.