Kannawidan: The Ylocos Festival

The fiesta is part and bundle of Filipino culture. It has been pass from old to new generations. Through good times and bad times, the fiesta must go on. Each of its city and barrio has at their own local festivals. These are the seasons celebrated with all the display and show the fun-loving Filipino can handle and usually on the feast of their patron saints so that there is always a fiesta going on somewhere in the country.

Being an Iloco, the greatest and grandest fiesta is the Kannawidan Festival. This is celebrated annually by the people every 29^th day of January to 5^th day of February. Kannawidan Ylocos Festival had already established its identity as the prime festival of the province. It commemorate the foundation day of the Ilocos Sur as separate province. This event let the Ilocos to preserve old traditions, the province’ attractive products and practices and at the same time, promoting the local tourism industry. It drew local and foreign tourists as more entertaining events had been included in the celebration. And the richness of the province in heritage and unique cultures is another reason why people visit the place.

Every night, there are different programs planned by the government. There are also parades and prosessions. There are also different contests for elementary and high school students. These include traditional tribal rituals, choir and glee club competition, marching band contest, traditional music ensemble, dance drama, traditional and folk dances, contemporary dance competition and street dancing showdown. These events aimed to encourage young Ilocanos to learn these indigenous songs and dances for sustainability and preservation.

To sum up, the most significant effect is that it helps boost the demand of our products, more job opportunities and livelihood opportunities were crated and more income for our people were generated.

REFLECTION

The countdown to our graduation day begins. There are only more than two months left for us to be high school students. The three gradings past so fast but I can always recall every singe memories that I have made with my very important people in life. Classes were done and I hope that all the lessons we've been through will always remain in my mind for future use.

During the Third Grading of our ICT IV, we still focused on the different html tags_ their use and how to apply effectively in the document. We have finished twelve exercises about the tags. We have learned to apply font sizes and colors, and hyperlinks. Our teacher gave us a group project and our research is about Vigan's tourism. We made a scrap book first. The data gathered were from the roaming of our group to the whole city. We went to all the tourist spots especially the heritage sites.  Because of this, I was able to visit again the beautiful places of the city. My group have fun especially when we ate street foods along the street of heritage village. The next thing we did was to made the web design. We didn't have much time so we had an overnight. We were very happy that we have made a project that we are really proud of.

The only problem there was the procedure of the project really consumed time and efforts. But still, I never regret it even though the pocket was damaged.

Now, I am moving on to have a happy time again for the Fourth Grading.

TRANSFORMATION

          2012 has a  lot of blessings and opportunities to offer. New year gives new hope to change. Many undergo transformations in their personalities just to improve it.

          People all over the planet celebrate the coming of new year annually with joy and happiness. Different people have their own way of approaching the wonderful occasion. A new year's resolution is the famous of them all. It's all about thinking what needs to be changed within us. If what needs to be changed in the way we act t our fellow.

          In this 2012 New Year Celebration, I thought of changing myself in the way I spend my money and in bringing my pack lunch everyday. Last year, I observed that I am being irresponsible in using my money. My parents give my allowance once in a week and most of the time, I don't already have any amount in my money for the end of the week. I also observed that I was always lazy to prepare and bring my lunch so in the end, I will go out to eatery houses with my classmates and because of that I use my money again. This is my 2012 resolution.I want to use and spend my money responsibly so that I will be able to get what I really need. 

ILOKO'AK: ILOCANO IS MY NATIVE DIALECT

Every second of our lives, we communicate to one another. Through this, we are being connected. Through this, we are able to inform anybody about anything in our minds. And the key to communicate are the languages and dialects. The entire world at large is full of different dialects with their own different beauties.  In every country region and province, there are many examples of dialects. Every individual has his own dialect that he can talk, understand and use while having conversations.

For a very huge count of dialect in different provinces of Philippines, there is only one that I truthfully is proud of. There will always be one dialect that I will love and use in my life_the Ilocano of every Iloco. Ilocano is very wonderful and interesting to hear, use and even to know how it is. The vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation is very different from the other dialects and this proves that our own Ilocano is purely original. The words are very unique to hear. There are those who are really very deep to know that even an Iloco can not understand like me. This is the reason why I still want to explore more in my own dialect.

Ilocoak and I am very proud of it. I use my own dialect Ilocano and will never be ashame to use it even if I will not be inside the province and go to ather places.

CHRISTMAS IN MY HEART

          Christmas is a Christian feast on the month of December that commemorate the birth of Savior Jesus Christ. It's the time when families and friends stay together building a tight relationship

          They tell us it is the season to be jolly. It's time ofornaments, red and green decorations, silver bells, holly, mistletoe and colored lights. The word merry is simple to define. It means to be happy, joyful and light- hearted.

          Yes, Christmas triggers strong emotions which many can not ignore. Christmas never fails to bring them all out.  Christmas is the magic that everyone believes in. From little children who stay up in the night of Christmas Eve to hear Santa's sleigh to adults whose hopes and dreams were shattered are restored.

          "Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys; showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive." This is a quote written by Robert Lynd that tells us all that even though we're not little kids anymore, we can still go back to be one and make Christmas wonderful and lively.

          Christmas has given many things to me. Christmas has shown me the beauty of life. Christmas in my heart is everything.

UNWANTED: BEING UNFAIR

          As a woman, I believe that all people should be treated similarly and unhampered by artificial barriers or prejudices.

         "I am-somebody. I maybe poor, but I am-somebody! I maybe on welfare but I am-somebody! I maybe uneducated but I am-somebody! I must be, I'm God's child. I must be respected and protected. I am beautiful! I am-somebody! Soul Power!" This is a very true to heart quote of Jesse Jackson. Being fair everytime in everything is what people wants especially women.Whoever we are in this world_ poor, stupid, physically ugly,etch., we deserve to be seen by our fellow as a human in the great society. We are all creatures of God. Creatures who are all born naked so it means that we must also live life equally with no discrimination. 

          Nowadays, the power of 'Equal right, Equal opportunity' is becoming stronger for most people are already aware that such policy exists. The power of men and women is the same. Not like the old times where women were really looked upon as lower individuals. They were discriminated. They were not even given a chance to prove themselves that they could also do something great because they were not permitted and allowed to go to school and learn. I don't understand why they treated women like that. We are all important to the continuity of life. But that's only a part of the past, it's all different now. Many women were already proved themselves in many fields_ in the study of science and mathematics, in arts, business, literature and in politics. Many were already written in the book of history. Many have shown themselves to the whole world and proved to men that they were not the only one who could do very good things.

          "Equal rights, Equal Opportunity." This must always prevail in every end. It's very important in having a fair government and community. Isn't sad to be unfair to others or maybe victim of unfair society?

DEFINITELY POSSIBLE

    Mother Earth we live in is the only habitation for living things in this very wide universe. We have the so called interconnectedness in science_ that every organisms, living or not are naturally connected to one another in able to exist. Plants, animals, and other organism are found inside our planet. All of these are very useful to humans in everyday life. Plant's primary use to the ecosystem is being the producer of food. It provides us our food, medicine, clothing and shelter. Animals have the same role with the humans because they are also depending on what the ecosystem can give them.

     Men are becoming so greedy today. They are not satisfied in just getting what they need, but also to get what they want. Most of the time, they do whatever it takes and because of this, they are already ruining the planet. It's not bad to dream for more modernized world but what is really wrong is to destroy the environment. Everyday, we use chemicals but are we not aware that these destroy the earth's ozone layer? Or maybe, we are just pretending that we are all blind and deaf. Climate change is the biggest proof of these irresponsible acts. The world is already changing for worse. The glaciers in the two poles are melting so fast and there will come a time that the resulting water will flood us all and will result to death. What we're doing is slowly killing us. Stop destroying Mother Earth. Start a single move and surely it will be a great help. The very common first step is following the 3Rs_ Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. This act will avoid and lessen pollution in air, water and land.

   There are many planets in the universe but only one can provide us all the things that we need to have life. If this one becomes totally ruined, our children, grandchildren and many more of our own next generations will not have a home. If we all do our part to save mother earth, it is definitely possible.