EDUARD EMMANUEL E.

MARCAIDA
BSEE 2A
LOT 3 BLK 2, COLTLAND SUBD., KINAMALIGAN, MASBATE CITY, MASBATE
DATE: April 1 – April 30

Correlating Cultural Festivals with Nationalism

(Province of Masbate)

Rodeo festival is an annual event which takes place here in our beloved city of
Masbate. This showcases skills in livestock handling such as lassoing, wrestling, and
riding the cattle. The festival started way-back in 1992 as a way of uplifting the local
cattle industry here in Masbate. The implication of this festival here in Masbate is to
mainly give thanks to the improving sector of livestock industry and to improve the
overall level of tourism. Nevertheless, through this festival, the Province of Masbate
increases the level of competitiveness to ensure that practices such lassoing, wrestling,
and riding the cattle would be passed down to the youth. Many teenagers up to their
mid-20s are usually interested in such activity due to tournaments being held that
comes a long with a not-so-bad prize pool + with recognition as to probably one of the
best skills in livestock handling, this doesn’t seem so bad due to the fact the festival is a
form of thanksgiving, a form of attraction for tourism and as an even overall for us to
enjoy.

Since then, it has been a trademark of Masbate to, obviously, held its annual
event. Through the efforts of its founders, the Rodeo festival made an “imagined
community” in which concepts like “owned tradition” really do exist here in Masbate. Of
course, Rodeo festival is not solely owned by the Masbateños, but nonetheless it has
been the image of Masbate to maintain identity that we’re the only province here in the
heart of the Philippines that we have one of the brightest and best festival. To the
nationalists, for holding the ideology of nationalism, this is a good sign that we have our
identity through things that Masbate tends to offer, for me this doesn’t seem so bad.
After all, almost all of the Filipinos are nationalist and respects the country. Thus,
Masbateños are not far from that idea because we ourselves love our province as much
as we love our country.