The story
Sambuokan Festival in Mati
Sambuokan Festival is Mati City's founding anniversary celebration in Davao Oriental, held around October 27 to 29 and named after the Mandaya word buok, meaning one, to symbolize unity. Founded in 2001, it features a carabao float parade and a street-dance competition inspired by Mandaya tribal music.
Mati, the capital of Davao Oriental on Mindanao's eastern Pacific coast, was formally established as a municipality on October 29, 1903, under American colonial administration, but the surrounding hinterlands had long been home to the Mandaya, an indigenous group whose name and language shaped much of the area's cultural identity well before that founding date.