Underscoring the essence of resilience and solidarity amid the circumstances driven by the pandemic, the first-ever online celebration of the 72nd Ateneo fiesta, tagged as “Tayô, Tayo! 2020”, officially commenced live this afternoon via the Ateneo de Davao University Facebook page.

Tayô and Tayo are both Tagalog terms which respectively mean “to stand up” or “to rise”, and  refer to the pronouns “we” or “us”, “inclusive of the people spoken to.”

Given the current situation, the celebration was conducted with the theme, “Igniting the Marian Spirit: Our Binding Force of Hope, Resilience and Togetherness Despite Distance and Uncertainty” which seeks to ignite the spirit of hope, and calls for everyone to stand firm and together face the global and even local challenges caused by the pandemic.

In his opening remarks, AdDU President Fr. Joel Tabora, SJ noted the Marian Spirit “as one of free and open availability to God’s will”, in which “Mary’s consent to give birth to the savior of the world, whose suffering and death freed us from death and whose resurrection gives us eternal life.”

“This is the hope we share, that all does not end in death … so does that hope shape our resilience. Since it is a shared hope, in shared adversity, it brings us together despite the fact that because of COVID-19, we come together in distance and connect to each other certainly despite uncertain connectivity,” Tabora said.

Samahan Secretary-General Samantha Claire Cayona stated, in an online interview, that during the celebration, the efforts are not only intended to inspire people by supporting the talents of students from Ateneo but also to “pour efforts to help a community that is significantly challenged by the pandemic.”

“We often asked ourselves why we need to host a fiesta online and Himig Bughaw: Concert for a Cause was the one that gave us the purpose. We wish to send a message that we can be resilient together by helping a community stand and aiding other students to continue with their education despite the pandemic,” Cayona said.

Cayona also stressed that the opening program reminded her of how talented Ateneans can be, as “students were able to pull off very amazing and inspiring outputs for Ateneo” despite the constraints they had.

“The preparations and all the work behind the scenes were very challenging. Still, the efforts of the clusters, the performers, and the Technical Working Group (TWG) were overflowing that they can overcome so many hindrances,” she told Atenews.

Furthermore, Cayona urged the students to cheer on all participants and expressed hope that they can celebrate with the whole community at various events.

“We also hope that the community will support the Himig Bughaw program even by sharing or retweeting the publicity materials. To all the Ateneans, we hope that we remain inspired to be resilient together despite the distance and uncertainty.”

Albeit the absence of traditional fiesta parade and group dance showdown, the high intensity and excitement of the crowd still remained as the virtual stage was rocked with the introduction of different clusters, presentation of the fiesta anthem, as well as the teasers for the Quarantine Creative Series: Short Film and DubidubiDUBDUB during the opening ceremony.

Meanwhile, cheers resounding from the Martin Hall were converted into power shares and tweets as students made noise in various social media platforms, especially on Twitter, by making the tags #72ndAteneoFiesta and #TayôTayo2020 reach more than 2,000 and 1,300 tweets, respectively.