Its middle of May already and the harvest festival is taking up a notch in gear towards the finale on the 30th and 31st of May. There's already a few district already concluded their Unduk Ngadau Kaamatan competition that started as early as the end of April last month. Unduk Ngadau Kaamatan is the traditional beauty pageant that held annually in the month of May in conjuction with the harvest festival. A festive that honouring the spirit of paddy for the bountiful and good crops of harvest this year long. The Finale of this festival is the beauty pageant competition in the state level at the end of May and the whole people of Sabah will be anticipating who will be the winner and be crown as the Huminodun.
A little bit of folklore about Huminodun according to our ancestor, a character in dusun myth. Huminodun is a maiden sacrificed to feed her famine-stricken people. In the words of Kadazan Dusun, "Huminodun" means "transferred sacrifice". The original name of this myth character was ''Ponompuan'' the daughter of Kinoingan and his wife, Sumundu. Because of the famine that befalls to the lands of Sabah at the time, making all the crops that they cultivated the whole year round to be damage. Thus, Ponompuan who is kind hearted, thoughtful and wise beyond her years feels very distraught by the situation decided to sacrifice herself to reverse the famine effects to the people. Thus, that's how she got her name of Huminodun.
Here's a photo session that were done somewhere around the fourth weeks of April. A session that I have organized together with the Eid-al Fitr in this post Eid-al Fitr. Coincidently, this year month of May falls the double festive of Eid-al Fitr early of May and also the month of Harvest Festival that last for over a month until the finale on the 30th and 31st of May annually. The concept of this photo session is the spirit of Huminodun. The model wearing the traditional costume of Kadazan from the district of Penampang called Sinuangga. Every district have their own costume and name which is unique to the Kadazan Dusun Murut Rungus native of Sabah. During the Unduk Ngadau Kaamatan competition is where all the different costume will be showcase by the participant that will represent their own district.
| Photographer |  @gideongys |
|---|---|
| Equipment | Sony A7RIII / Sony Zeiss 25mm f2 Batis / Sony 70-200mm f4 |
| Software | Capture One 21 / Adobe Photoshop CC |
Hopefully I will have the energy to go at least a few of the Unduk Ngadau district competition this year. The first one that I managed to go is the registration day of Kota Marudu district on the 2nd of May. My posting about this visit can be read here Harvest Festival Fever. Until the next post everyone and thank you for visiting my blog. Cheer's.
