Bibon, Kim Joshua N.

Wedding Dance by:Amador T. Daguio

I.

The Author:
A poet, novelist and teacher during the pre-war.
Best known for his fictions and poems.
Had published two volumes of poetry, Bataan Harvest and The Flaming Lyre.
Had served as chief editor for the Philippine House of Representatives before he
died in 1966
During the Japanese Occupatiokn, he joined the resistance and wrote poems in
secret, later collected as Bataan Harvest.
He was born on January 8, 1912 in Laog, Ilocos Norte.
He grew up in Lubuagan, Mountain Province, where his father was assigned as an
officer in the Philippine Constabulary.
He studied at Rizal High School in Pasig wherein he stayed with his uncle at Fort
William McKinley (now the prestigious McKinley Hill at the Fort).
He obtained his M.A. in English at Standford U. as a Fulbright scholar.
His thesis was a study and translation of Hudhud hi Aliguyon (Ifugao Harvest
Song).
I spent them literally in poverty, extreme loneliness, and adolescent pains In
my loneliness, I began to compose verses in earnest.
There was a time that he was going to be the valedictorian or salutatorian by his
teacher, utter lack of justice, put down his marks in history, his favourite subject.
He worked Saturday and Sunday as printers devil at the U.P. and served as
Philippine Collegian reporter.

II.

Setting and Atmosphere:

a. The story happened in a wedding celebration.
sound of the gangsas beat
the dancing women
man leaped lightly with their gangsas as they circled the dancing women
decked in feast garments and beads, tripping on the ground like gravceful
birds, following their men.
the blazing bonfire at the edge of the village
b. As the author describes,
Awiyao, Lumnay, Madulimay and the villagers are natives from Ifugao.
c. The common practices, rituals and beliefs of their tribe:
Wedding rituals, symbolic beads, belief to Kabunyan (), a fruitless/childless
man, and the law that suits to their tribe.
d. The primitive way of living:
Planting beans and rice.

III.

Characters:
a. Awiyao
Was married before to Lumnay, but their marriage didnt work since their
life together was fruitless as without a child is.
Has a sense if lightness I his way of saying things.

b.

c.
d.
e.
IV.

A man who has a hard, strong, and kind personality.

A man of humour.
His muscles were taut and firm, bronze and compact
in their hold upon his skull, his eyes are bright as a sun is. Has a wide
and supple torso as if a slab of shining lumber were heaving; his arms
and legs flowed down in fluent muscles.
Lumnay
Formerly married to Awiyao.
She have been a good wife.
A passionate, faithful and persistent wife.
A barren.
Madulimay
Awiyaos second wife.
Kabunyan
God of Fertility.
Dancers, Gangsas beaters, villagers, elders, and Chief of the Village

Summary:

The story begin by Awiyaos restless longing for forgiveness from Lumnay.
While everyone was celebrating with the newly wedded couple, Lumnay on
the dark side of the world sobbing and mourning as if she have lost
someone. Awiyao found her at the corner of a dark room, asking her why
she didnt go out and join the dancing women? He invite her so that one of
the men will see her dance well, will then like her dancing and marry her. But
the persistent lover (Lumnay) would sharply reiterate that she dont want
any man, other than Awiyao.
Awiyao married Madulimay because Lumnay cannot bear and conceive
him a child. The unwritten law demands that in order for a man to be a man,
he must have a child to come after him. He did this because of the
demanding need for a child, life is not worth living without a child; the maan
may have mocked him behind his back. Love was undermined by a law.
Awiyaos love to Lumnay never fades. Love is something which is worth dying
for. On the other hand, Lumnay was grieving for the loss of that love.
Madulimay, as would Awiyao describe her, can never become as good as
Lumnay is. She is not as strong in planting beans, not fast in cleaning water
jars, not as good keeping a house clean. Indeed she is one of the best wives
in the whole village. Lumnay cannot but keep the stories that she and Awiyao
have created in the name of love.
Lumnay for one last time clung to Awiyaos neck, press herself to him as a
gesture of her intimate and unwavering love. She cried aloud that she dont
care about the fields, the house or to anything but him. Shell have no other
man. As a symbol of her endless love, she give Awiyao the beads that come

from up north which are worth twenty fields. They stand for the love he
gave to her and said: I love you. I love you and have nothing to give.
The world was against the odds for Lumnay. Her graceful and supple body
slowly faded. The story ended when Lumany isolate herself from the joyous
celebration, she ran to the mountains and look for a big rock on which she
was to sit down.
The bean plants now surround her, and she was lost among them her
fingers moved a long, long time among the growing bean pods.
V.

Conflict:

MAN VS. SOCIETY [REGIONAL CULTURE AND PRACTICES]

Awiyao has to remarry another women of his life. Because for them life is
not worth living without a child. Practically because in their culture, there
must be a successor of their inheritances.
Lumnay is a barren. She did everything to have a child but she assumed
that Kabunyan (god of fertility) does not see fit for them to have a child.
It was hard for Lumnay to accept the fact of their tradition, but other than
this reality she is downtrodden to their separation. She bore all wounds and
pain of love but this scar inflicted to her is unbearable.
Awiyao cannot but compare Lumnay to Madulimay. I came to tell you that
Madulimay, although I am marrying her, can never become as good as you
are. She is not as strong in planting beans, not as fast in cleaning water
jars, not as good keeping a house clean. You are one of the best wives in
the whole village.

VI.

Point of View: Third Person

VII.

Moment of Illumination:

She flung herself upon his knees and clung to them. "Awiyao, Awiyao,
my husband," she cried. "I did everything to have a child," she said
passionately in a hoarse whisper. "Look at me," she cried. "Look at my body.
Then it was full of promise. It could dance; it could work fast in the fields; it
could climb the mountains fast. Even now it is firm, full. But, Awiyao, I am
useless. I must dieI don't care about the fields, she said. I don't
care about the house. I don't care for anything but you. I'll have no
other man."
VIII. Theme:
Love is an unconditional thing. True love never fails.
IX.

Reflection:

Love should be an exemption to a law. Love is what makes a man or a

woman complete in themselves. Everyone has the capacity to love, thus
this capacity should never be a quantifiable thing. You should not love
with you selfish interests but rather you should love beyond yourself. Love
is a promising thing. You should not allow your beloved to feel in great
contempt, you should never be a thief of her/his heart that you are
impelled to love her because of lascivious desires. And lastly, love never
dies. When you love, it is a commitment that you are tangled with. It is
hard to let go and bury all the memories that youve patched together.