Cañao or kanyao is simply a "festival" or ceremony or liturgy, or service or rite/ritual, of offering. It is a generic term. "Witchcraft" would be too limited or off the mark to describe it. A "kanyao" may be performed for thanksgiving for the health of the community, there could be a kanyao (petitionary/intercessory) for a bountiful harvest; a family kanyao may be performed for healing such as a very simple ritual of "sedey" with the use of water and prayer; a "grand kanyao" has the focus of entertainment, cultural shows and festivities.
Kinds of Cañao:
- Sangbo - A cañao performed to become rich. If a person dreamt or saw a very unusual thing, he shall consult a mansip-ok (a person who knows how to interpret a dream) for the meaning of that dream. After the mansip-ok has interpret the meaning of the dream or unusual sight, the person concerned will prepare the needed materials: pig, chicken and tapuy and after a few days a cañao will be held with the mambunong performing the rituals. The mambunong blesses the pig and chicken before they are butchered. The mambunong also tells the husband and wife that "You are lucky to celebrate this kind of cañao because it is unusual for a person to be given this luck." The husband and wife will also undergo a "ngilin" (fasting/mouring) for three days, staying at their house for the whole duration. After three days, they shall go to the river to take a bath, this then ends their ngilin. After this, they were free to go back to their daily lives.
- Peshet - A cañao performed by those who are rich; an offering of thanksgiving to Kabunian who gave them the material blessings that they enjoy. This is a big cañao where they invite the whole community. They butcher about ten carabaos and ten pigs. The ceremony lasts for five to eight days before the couples would be dispersed from the house of the host.
- Palis - A cañao to bring back the spirit of a sick person taken by the tinmongao(spirit residing at the creeks). The ritual animal is a dog offered to the tinmongao so that it would release the spirit of the sick person and for the person to be freed from sickness.
- Topia - A cañao to drive out the devil from a sick person and where the person who might have cause the sickness would be affected with the prayer of the mambunong. e.g. If the mambunong prayed that he will get sick and the person really got sick, this was sure sign of hi evil work on the other person. The ritual animal for this kind of cañao is a dog or a chicken.
- Diyao or Liyao - A cañao to bless a new building and to have more abundant harvest or food for the family as well as the people of the place. If somebody built a house and was about to live in that house, a mambunong was called to perform the ceremonies. Animals like carabaos and pigs were butchered to celebrate the occasion.
- Pasang - A cañao to pray for a couple to have children. The mambunong needs one rooster and one mother hen to perform the ceremony. The mambunong calls the name of the husband and wife and says the following: "Anyone of you, husband or wife who is married to other living being will come back to earth to your former wife or husband."
- Bas-ing - A cañao to ask repentance for having done foolishness to a woman or being lascivious. If a person who was sick was fount out to be sick for his lasciviousness, a mambunong will be called to pray for the healing of the person by letting him confess his guilt of doing something against the will of the other person. He has to confess first to the mambunong, before the mambunong will ask Kabunian to pardon him for his wrongdoing. The ritual animals for the ceremony is a hen or a rooster.
- Pecpecley - A kind of cañao that heals the feeling of a person regarding the act of sex, if the person losses interest for the opposite sex, the mambunong will get one rooster for the ritual and will pray to Kabunian that the person's feelings be returned so that he may have children.
- Paccle - A cañao participated by all the kailian. This is done during harvest time, so that the products will be blessed by the prayers of the mambunong that all the residents of the place might have abundant food during the succeeding year. The expense of the cañao is shared by the entire community and anyone who would violate the rules of the cañao would pay all the expenses incurred during the cañao. One big pig is usually butchered.
- Amiag - A cañao for a person who is married to a spirit from the sky or heaven.
- Tomo - A cañao for curing an insane person, a sacrificial dog is offered to the departed ancestors believed to have cause the insanity.
- Maguman - A cañao for celebrating the first death anniversary of a person. This cañao ends with a mourning period for the husband or the wife left behind.
