Harvest Festival or Tadau Kaamatan
Festival Date:  30 & 31 MAY 2012

In May, the people of Sabah celebrate their harvest season. Though mainly a festival of the Kadazandusun,which makes up one third of the total population of the state, it is celebrated by every Sabahan.


They give thanks to the gods and spirits for blessings and a good paddy harvest, asking for guidance; they dance and eat and drink amidst much merrymaking! During this harvest festival, the Pesta Ka'amatan, known locally as “Tadau Ka’amatan”, Sabah natives wear their traditional costumes and enjoy a carnival-like atmosphere, which usually stretches from dawn to dawn. Tapai’, as their homemade rice wine is called, is freely served during the festivities.


Although many young native Sabahans have been assimilated into urban settings, living and working in the cities and towns, they return to their ancestral longhouses and villages to join in the annual celebrations of their traditionally agricultural societies.

The origins of Ka'amatan, which means "after harvest", can be traced back to the animistic beliefs of the Kadazandusun. The Kadazans believe in the worship of ancient gods and in the existence of the five main spirits – Kinoingan (Almighty God and Creator), Rusad (Spirit of all living things other than Man), Koududuvo (Spirit of the Living), Tombivo (ghostly Spirit of the Dead) and Rogon (evil Spirit).

According to popular belief, the spirit of the padi plant is said to be part of the Kinoingan commonly known as the Bambaazon, who is revered as the overall creator, an omnipotent source of life and existence. Thus the spirit of Bambaazon is revered in the rice plant, the rice grain and the cooked rice. To the Kadazandusun, paddy is not only their staple food - it is also a sacred plant, a living symbol of Kinoingan's love for his people. Many believe that “without rice, there is no life”.

Rituals performed during Ka'amatan are conducted by the much-respected Bobohizan or Bobolian, who are High Priests and Priestesses. There are several major components that make up Ka'amatan. There is the home coming of the Bambaazon, which is an integral part of the festival, thus ensure an abundant harvest if it is invited to dwell in the best ears of paddy, which have been selected for the next planting season.

Next, there is the Magavau ceremony, where the Bobohizan are given the onerous duty of searching, salvaging and recovering Bambaazon which have inadvertently been lost, stolen or led astray - by pests and predators, natural phenomena such as floods and droughts, careless harvesters, and the like - reciting a long summoning prayer in the beginning of the harvest to cajole and persuade the Bambaazon to return to the rice barns.

Then, there is the Unduk Ngadau, a traditional beauty contest, in which, of course, the fairest in the land will participate, and a Ka'amatan Queen will be selected. This is however no ordinary beauty contest, as it apparently owes its origins to the legend or story of the Kadazandusun's genesis, and their creator, Kinoingan's sacrifice of his only daughter Huminodun, for the love of his people.

Below are the beauty queen representative their districts. They are so beautiful even the judges cannot make their decision. Only, the beauty with brains will win. The pictures taken during Kaamatan 2011 and the queen for 2012 still going on now. Please enjoy...

If you are interested to find more, you can view in Sabah Tourism for more details Sabah Tourism Board

Still in Easter season...God bless u all my friends...

I love u, mum....I'm sorry for i always made you sad, but bottom of my heart...u still the best person i ever had in this world...God bless u, mommy..

My children, you cannot be without the shepherds

My children, you cannot be without the shepherds

(c)Mary TV 2011 The lifesaving ministry of the Priesthood! May 8, 2012 Dear Family of Mary! "My children, you cannot be without the shepherds. May they be in your prayers every day. Thank you." (May 2, 2012) . This is the tail end of Our Lady's message of May 2. But it is a very important part of her message. Our Lady shares with us a very stark and startling reality. We really cannot be without our shepherds. Without our Pope, the bishops, and our priests, we would cease to function as the Body of Christ. Our shepherds are like the vital organs of the body, pumping oxygen and food through our veins like the heart and lungs, teaching us and guiding us like the brain and the senses, and cleaning us of all impurities, like the kidneys and intestines. They keep us alive in the grace of God through their administration of the Sacraments. We need them!!! . I have several examples of the life-saving role of the priesthood in my life. Here is one. About 15 years ago I became very ill with an intestinal infection. At first it looked like the flu, but as time went by it intensified instead of abating, and so I was sent to the emergency room. As the doctors worked to try to diagnose the cause of my illness, I became weaker and weaker. It was looking pretty grim. No one seemed able to identify the source of my problem. . I was in and out of reality, sedated because of pain. But I remember very clearly the night when Denis brought Fr. Ed O'Connor to my hospital room to give me the Anointing of the Sick. Fr. Ed's voice penetrated the fog in my mind, and I heard him praying the beautiful prayers of the Anointing. I felt the oil on my forehead, hands and feet. I knew I was being blessed through the power of the Church, and a peace came over me that I could not explain. . That same night, a new doctor came on the scene, and his voice also pierced through the fog, and I knew he would be able to diagnose my situation. I just knew it. He asked me several questions, and then made some changes to my medications. For the next week, he attended me very faithfully, and though it was touch and go, I pulled through with no lasting consequences. (I also had many friends and family praying for me. In fact that night I was anointed two friends were in adoration for me, and they both felt it was a turning point.) . Anyway, I experienced firsthand that power of the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. It was as if Jesus came right to my bedside and turned the situation around, beginning my healing through Fr. Ed. We cannot "be" without our priests, bishops and the Pope. They are our life support system in the Body of Christ, and we need them at every turning point in our life. . I want to pray for them with intense gratitude and love. I think we should cherish them because they bring us the life sustaining graces that Jesus has provided for us by His sacrifice, death and resurrection. Thank you, dear Jesus, for giving us your Representatives on earth. Thank you for their constant care. Strengthen them for the days ahead. Teach them how to become more and more perfect as your representatives, and comfort them in their trials and failures. We ask you to hear our prayers for them, and to always sustain them in love. In Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Cathy Nolan ©Mary TV 2012

FEW ARE THOSE WHO LOVE CROSS OF THE LORD, BUT IT CAN BE THE 'ROYAL ROAD' TO HEAVEN

[from: The Imitation of Christ]

The Eleventh Chapter

JESUS has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross. Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for a while, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolation, yet they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus -- love that is flee from all self-interest and self-love! Do not those who always seek consolation deserve to be called mercenaries? Do not those who always think of their own profit and gain prove that they love themselves rather than Christ? Where can a man be found who desires to serve God for nothing? 

Rarely indeed is a man so spiritual as to strip himself of all things. And who shall find a man so truly poor in spirit as to be free from every creature? His value is like that of things brought from the most distant lands. If a man give all his wealth, it is nothing; if he do great penance, it is little; if he gain all knowledge, he is still far afield; if he have great virtue and much ardent devotion, he still lacks a great deal, and especially, the one thing that is most necessary to him. What is this one thing? That leaving all, he forsake himself, completely renounce himself, and give up all private affections. Then, when he has done all that he knows ought to be done, let him consider it as nothing, let him make little of what may be considered great; let him in all honesty call himself an unprofitable servant. For truth itself has said: "When you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: 'we are unprofitable servants.'" Luke 17:10. Then he will be truly poor and stripped in spirit, and with the prophet may say: "I am alone and poor."18 No one, however, is more wealthy than such a man; no one is 

more powerful, no one freer than he who knows how to leave all things and think of himself as the least of all.
 

The Twelfth Chapter

TO MANY the saying, "Deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow Me,"19 seems hard, but it will be much harder to hear that final word: "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire."20 Those who hear the word of the cross and follow it willingly now, need not fear that they will hear of eternal damnation on the day of judgment. This sign of the cross will be in the heavens when the Lord comes to judge. Then all the servants of the cross, who during life made themselves one with the Crucified, will draw near with great trust to Christ, the judge. Why, then, do you fear to take up the cross when through it you can win a kingdom? In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies, in the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the cross is strength of mind, in the cross is joy of spirit, in the cross is highest virtue, in the cross is perfect holiness. There is no salvation of soul nor hope of everlasting life but in the cross. Take up your cross, therefore, and follow Jesus, and you shall enter eternal life. He Himself opened the way before you in carrying His cross, and upon it He died for you, that you, too, might take up your cross and long to die upon it. If you die with Him, you shall also live with Him, and if you share His suffering, you shall also share His glory. Behold, in the cross is everything, and upon your dying on the cross everything depends. There is no other way to life and to true inward peace than the way of the holy cross and daily mortification. Go where you will, seek what you will, you will not find a higher way, nor a less exalted but safer way, than the way of the holy cross. Arrange and order everything to suit your will and judgment, and still you will find that some suffering must always be borne, willingly or unwillingly, and thus you will always find the cross. Either you will experience bodily pain or you will undergo tribulation of spirit in your soul. At times you will be forsaken by God, at times troubled by those about you and, what is worse, you will often grow weary of yourself. You cannot escape, you cannot be relieved by any remedy or comfort but must bear with it as long as God wills. For He wishes you to learn to bear trial without consolation, to submit yourself wholly to Him that you may become more humble through suffering. No one understands the passion of Christ so thoroughly or heartily as the man whose lot it is to suffer the like himself.

Resource: Spiritdaily.com