A Review on

Wedding Dance (Amador Daguio)

To bear children is very important element in
creating afamily and establishing better
relationship between husbandand wife; but it is
something which Awiyao and Lumnay willnever achieve.
It is a story between two people belongingin one of
the ethnic groups in the Philippines, the Ifugao.In
order for us to better understand the story, we
mustunderstand their law. It states "A couple who
wish todivorce due to infertility of either one of
the partners isallowed by the law. A husband who
divorces a wife withoutany valid reason will have to
leave all properties to thechildren and the wife,
this is another law." Though it washard and painful,
Awiyao wanted to have children so muchthat he
divorced Lumnay and remarried another Ifugao
namedMadulimay. In the old Filipino culture, when
people havenot known anything about how fertility
happens, a man
questions another mans masculinity if he does
not have achild. In the case of Awiyao, though he
feels that no onecan replace Lumnay as the best
wife, he still feels theneed to divorce her just for
him to have children who willfollow him in the
fields in the future. Lumnay asked whythey should pa
rt if theyre love for each other is eternal.
Why should they separate if there really is nothing
wrongin their personal relationship?I nearly burst
into tears while I was reading the story.Daguio had
shown the readers the great love Awiyao andLumnay
have for each other by heartbreaking lines
theyexchange while saying goodbye. Daguio had
written a greatlove story with a great sense of
ethnicity. He reallyshowed people how rich culture
Filipinos have.In the story mentioned about Gangsas
(gongs), which manyethnic groups in the Philippines
play at a time ofcelebration. Women together with
other men should dancearound the fire at the sound
of gongs while children sitand watch. The gangsas in
the story is like a spiritcalling Lumnay to take
part in his ex-
husbands wedding. To
her, hearing the gangsas is just like eating a
poisonedapple, softly killing her, and taking away
her soul.However in the end, the gangsas made Lumnay
want to go tothe wedding dance and question their
law. She wanted to askthem why is it wrong to not
bear children if you are

married. Could they not stay the same way? They love
eachother anyway.I like how Daguio constructed the
story. It is very local,very nationalistic, no stain
of western culture at all. IfI were of a
nother race, Ill surely be more amazed and
curious while reading the story. The story is very
culturalfrom the way Awiyao opened the door and lit
their fireplaceup to the end where Lumnay ran into
the woods and sit withtheir crops. It also mentioned
about beads, and farm tools:the only worldly
possession they have. Filipino life beforewas so
simple yet so beautiful. If you would think aboutit,
people in the ethnic group have a very different
butastonishing way of living their lives. Now, youth
could notlive without computer as part of their
school life; and
gems, diamonds, and pearls are couples symbols of
love for
each other. In the story, the simple necklace made
frombeads is the symbol of their promise. See how
simple theylive in simplicity?I needed to reread the
last part because I was not able tounderstand it
that much; but as I was reading it for thesecond
time, I realized what the growing bean pods mean.
Atthe last paragraph of the story states:
The stretching of the bean pods full le
ngth from the
hearts of the wilting petals would go on.
In my opinion, Daguio meant that life still goes on.
The
hearts of the wilting petal symbolizes Lumnays
broken
heart. It means that though her heart is broken
today,still her life goes on and there will be a new
morning toface.
She would be holding the bean flowers, soft in
texture,
silken almost, but moist where the dew got into
them,silver to look at, silver on the light blue
blooming
whiteness, when the morning comes.
Her painful experiences from getting out of the
desolate
memories she had while reminiscing Awiyaos love
will
eventually fade and will transform her to a
beautiful beanpod.Though there is a huge gap between
ethnic filipino groupsfrom modernized Filipinos,
surely the readers of the storycould still relate a
lot. Filipinos have great adoration oflove stories
relating to family crisis; and though theWedding
Dance by Amador Daguio is a simple one, it deserves

a vote of confidence, for it stands up and shows

the
world how rich culture the Filipinos have.
The Wedding Dance
Amador T. Daguio
SUMMARY
Awiyao and Lumnay is a long married couple from
theMountain tribes. Awiyao is going to marry another
woman,Madulimay, because Lumnay was not able to give
him a child.Awiyao went back home to see Lumnay
because he didn't findher among the dancers at his
wedding. He wanted Lumnay todance at his wedding for
the last time but she cannot. Ontheir moment, there
are many flashbacks about how Lumnaydid her best to
have a child, through offering to the god,Kabunyan;
and how Awiyao and Lumnay's love was as strong asthe
river; but "it is just that a man must have a
child",and he had to leave her. He promised her that
if he failsto have a child, he will come back to
her. She wanted toprotest against the written rule
that a man can marryanother woman, so Lumnay went to
the wedding dance. Butwhile seeing her husband
married to another woman, shecould not take it
anymore and just went to the mountain toclear away
the beans she had thought about. And so
Lumnay,waiting for Awiyao a long time, thought of
Awiyao's promiseas she cleared away the growing bean
plants.