Lomibao, Christen Rei T.

IX- St. James

PHILIPPINE FESTIVALS

Panagbenga Festival
The Panagbenga Festival is held yearly during the month of February. The celebrations are held
for over a month and peak periods are the weekends. The Panagbenga Festival showcases the
many floral floats and native dances. The fragrant smells that could be presently teasing
olfactory senses are probably less from the now-dried flowers from Valentine's Day than air
floating all the way from Baguio City. At this time of year, the City of Pines is almost surely in
flower fury over Panagbenga festival, the city's biggest festival.
Panagbenga is a kankanaey term for "a season of blooming." It is also known as the Baguio
Flower Festival, a homage to the beautiful flowers the city is famous for as well as a celebration
of Baguio's re-establishment. Since February 1995, it has been held to help Baguio forget the
1990 earthquake that distressed much of the city.

In 1995 when Atty. Damaso E. Bangaoet, Jr., proposed the idea of organizing a flower festival to
be held in February to the directors of the John Hay Poro Point Development Corporation, his
suggestion received their immediate approval.
Thereafter the idea was presented to the different sectors of Baguio society and their response,
also warm and immediate, eventually grew as a wellspring of community support.
  An identity was created that was to reflect the rich cultural heritage of Baguio City and
the Cordillera region. The official logo was selected from among those submitted by the
students of all levels at the Camp John Hay Art Contest. Trisha Tabangin's winning entry
of a spray of wild sunflowers was selected.

 The festival hymn was composed by Saint Louis University (SLU) Professor Macario
Fronda, which was learned by all the school children. It is still that music that wafts in the
air all throughout the festival during the parades.

 The core events remain the same: The Parade of Floats, Street Dancing &
Band Competitions, Session Road in Bloom, Market Encounter, Pony Boys Day, etc.

Bangus Festival
The Dagupan Bangus Festival is considered one of the most exciting festivals in the Philippines
and celebrated for a little over two weeks in the month of April and towards the first few days of
May with the grilling of bangus in the streets highlighting the occasion. The festival started in
the year 2002 and was conceptualized by then Mayor Benjamin Saplan Lim to promote the
bangus industry so as to increase sales and production of the local milkfish. At present times, the
festival has been considered a globally acclaimed event and best advertisement for the world’s
tastiest milkfish.

The Bangus Festival is an annual celebration in the city of Dagupan. It highlights the city’s rich
milk fish aquaculture industry in the province of Pangasinan and in the country.
The city of Dagupan is an independent component city created by virtue of Republic Act No 170
signed by President Manuel Roxas on June 20, 1947.
The city’s name was derived from the local dialect word “pandaragupan” meaning a gathering
since the city has been for centuries the regional market center in particular the Ilocos Region or
Region 1.
Dagupan City is in north of Manila and are serviced by bus companies such as Victory Liner,
Dagupan Bus and the Five Star with a travel time of approximately four (4) hours.

Moriones Festival
The Moriones festival celebrates the life of Longinus, the Roman soldier who pierced Christ’s
side during the Crucifixion. Blood from the wound spattered Longinus’s blind eye, which was
immediately healed. Converted on the spot, he later attested to the Resurrection and, refusing to
recant, was executed. The Marinduqueyo version is colourful and bizarre, involving fanciful
masked figures dressed as centurions chasing Longinus around town and through nearby fields.
"Morion" means "mask" or "visior”, refer to the colorfully garbed and masked soldiers and
centurions during Christ's Passion, a part of Roman armor which covers the face. Morion serves
as the focal point of the Moriones festival and celebrations.

Several Moriones pageants are staged in Marinduque during Holy Week, with extra events added
in recent years for the benefit of tourists. Although the festival originated in Mogpog, and other
towns including Santa Cruz have their own versions, these days the major Moriones festival is in
Boac.
Kadayawan Festival
A celebration of good harvest, Kadayawan is a weeklong feast celebration in the City of Davao
being celebrated every 3rd week of August as a thanksgiving for nature’s bountiful harvest, the
wealth of culture, and serenity of living. From the word “madayaw”, a friendly greeting also
used to mean good, profitable, superior, beautiful and valuable.

It was said that long time ago, tribes of Davao gathered together to offer their rituals of thanks
giving at the foot of Mt. Apo. Thanksgiving was particularly for “Manama” (the Supreme
Being). Farm produce like flower, fruits, vegetables were displayed. This practice of
Thanksgiving and “pahinungod” (dedication) transformed in modern days, it was developed into
an annual festival of thanksgiving. In 1970, Mayor Elias B. Lopez begun to include the tribal
dance and rituals of Lumad (indigenous people) and the Muslim tribes of Davao. Later in 1986
the festival was called “Apo Duwaling” representing Mt. Apo which is the country’s highest
peak, Durian, the king of fruits; and Waling –waling the queen orchids of the Philippines. “Apo
Duwaling” was meant to show that Davao City is a peaceful city to visit and to do business after
1986 EDSA revolution, and to gather the people to forget the chaos in time of Martial Law. And
finally in 1988, the festival was renamed by City mayor Rodrigo Duterte as “Kadayawan sa
Davao” to celebrate the ample harvest of flowers, fruits, and other produce, and to showcase the
wealthy culture of the City.

Dinagyang Festival

The Dinagyang Festival is celebrated every fourth weekend of January to honor the
Christianization of the natives and to respect the Holy Child Jesus. On this day, streets of Iloilo
City will once again come alive as the Ilonggos celebrate the annual festivity. It is a very colorful
parade coupled with a dramatization in honor of the patron Saint Sto. Niño as the object of
performs offerings and prayers amidst the cracking of drums and shouts of "Viva Señor Santo
Niño." The thundering of "Hala Bira" by the tribe members makes the celebration a lively one. It
is also a very popular tagline used by Ilonggos to express their warm participation during the
"Dinagyang" celebration. A tribute in honor of Señor Sto. Niño whom Ilonggos believe was very
miraculous in times of famine and drought.

Dinagyang is an annual event, when the whole town rejoices, shouting their pride of being an
Ilonggo and telling their culture. It is a wonderful looking back to the past. It is not just a
celebration, it is a religious evangelization. Going back to Iloilo is more like a past fulfilled and a
looking forward for future celebrations. It is our culture. The Aeta culture. That's why it is
painting the town black.

The root word is dagyang. In Ilonggo, it means to make happy. Dinagyang is the present
progressive word of the Ilonggo word, meaning making merry or merry-making. A religious and
cultural activity, it is a celebration of Ilonggos whose bodies are painted with black in effect to
imitate the black, small and slender Negritos who are the aborigines of Panay. The warriors are
dressed in fashionable and colorful Aeta costumes and dance artistically and rhythmically with
complicated formations along with the loud thrashing and sound of drums.

Before, Dinagyang was called Ati-atihan like that of the Kalibo festivity. History tells that it
started when a replica of the image of Señor Sto. Niño was brought to the San Jose Parish
Church in Iloilo from Cebu. The people of Iloilo honored the coming of the image and then
became devotees. Until they made the day of the Image's arrival as his feast day which falls on
the 4th Sunday of January. Since 1968,it was already considered a yearly celebration, culminated
by anine-day Novena, an Ati-ati contest and a fluvial procession on the last day.

Recognized now to the annual, socio-cultural-religious festival of Iloilo City, the word
Dinagyang was made up by an old-timer, Ilonggo writer and radio broadcaster, the late Pacifico
Sumagpao Sudario, and first used to name the festival when it was launched in 1977, to make it
unique from other Ati-atihan celebrations.

Iloilo City's Dinagyang has its early beginnings in 1968, when a model of the image of Sr. Santo
Nino was brought from Cebu City to the San Jose Parish Church by Fr. Suplicio Ebderes, OSA
with a delegation of Cofradia del Sto.Niño, Cebu members. The image and party were
enthusiastically welcomed at Iloilo City by then parish priest of San Jose Church, Fr. Ambrosio
Galindez, OSA,then Mayor Renerio Ticao, and the devotees of the Sto. Niño in Iloilo City. The
image was brought to San Jose Parish Church and preserved there up to this time, where a
novena in His honor is held every Friday. The climax of the nine-day novena was the Fluvial
Procession.

In the early morning light of dawn, the respected Santo Niño image is borne on a decorative
banca in a fluvial procession, starting from the mouth of the Iloilo River at Fort San Pedro,
winding all the way to the Iloilo Provincial Capitol which stands on the bank of the Iloilo River.

If the festival had to be developed into a major tourist attraction, it would be so big in magnitude
and the Confradia thought that it could no longer cope with the demands of a tourist come-on.
The year 1976 also brought another feature of the festival. Street celebrations and audience
participation were introduced and encouraged.

Higantes Festival

Higantes Festival is celebrated every 22 and 23 November in the city of Angono, Province of
Rizal in the Philippines to honor San Clemente, the patron saint of fishermen. The festival
features a parade of hundreds of higantes, papier-mâché giants. Higantes are puppets rendered as
man or woman in various costumes; their face gives a commanding look, their hands on the
waist. The festival’s origin can be traced back to the period of Spanish colonial rule when, as
Angono was a ruled hacienda, celebrations were prohibited, except for one festival per year. The
Angonos (people of Angono) used the festival as an opportunity to mock hacienda owners by
making papier-mâché caricatures—an art they learned from Spanish friars.

In the present time, the Angonos build higantes to represent each barangay (smallest
administrative division in the Philippines; village) for the festival’s parade. Accordingly a
higante with a duck-shaped heard, for example, represents a barangay famous for fried duck and
balut (boiled duck embryo eaten from its shell). The number of higantes has increased to
hundreds over time, with more and more artists making higantes in various sizes and shapes.
Seminars or workshops on higante-making thru government support have also contributed to
keeping the festival alive.
It takes about a month to make no less than three-meter-tall higante. A higante’s head, the
hardest part taking a week to create, is made up of newspaper strips while its body is made up of
bamboo or rattan strips to carry it easily for hours. The handle’s height is adjusted to see its legs
when it is raised by 30 cm from the ground.

In a tradition called basaan, people sprinkle water on the parade or each other for blessing.
People believe that water symbolizes San Clemente, the patron saint of fishermen, which is why
they shout for water on themselves. The parade also includes a band and a group of young girls
called parehadores. Suited in colorful costumes, parehadores hold a sagwan (wooden boat
paddle), wearing wooden slippers; such items are symbols of San Clemente devotees. The girls
march together with the band, shouting “Viva San Clemente!” The band plays music, following
the girls. With multiple parade teams competing with each other, Higantes Festival has become
one of the most famous festivals enjoyed by people of all ages in the Philippines.

Binatbatan Festival

The city government of Vigan, in coordination with the Department of Tourism (DOT) and
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), is set to hold the week-long Viva Vigan Binatbatan
Festival of the Arts from April 28 to May 6.

The festival will feature a trade and food fair and a display of Ilocano delicacies, traditional
industries and crafts.

Wearing clothes made from Abel Iloko, a woven fabric endemic in the Ilocos Region, Binatbatan
Festival is not merely just a festival. It depicts the rich culture and old industries of Vigan.

Binatbatan Festival traces its roots from the Abel Weaving Industry of Vigan which has been in
existence even before the Spaniards came to colonize the Philippines. It comes from the word
batbat, a pair of bamboo stick used to separate cotton pods that come from a tall tree called kapas
sanglay. The word "kapas" from kapas sanglay means "cotton" in Ilocano.
Ati-atihan Festival

The Ati-Atihan Festival is held every year in January in Kalibo, the capital of Aklan province. It
is a two-week festival that ends on the third Sunday of the month.

Kalibo has been known for its Ati-Atihan before all the other neighboring provinces started their
own.

The Ati-Atihan Festival of Aklan is called the Mother of All Filipino Festivals. The name of the
festival means “pretending to be like an Ati.” The Ati, also known as Negritos, are an indigenous
people who have distinctively black skin and curly hair. In the year 1212 AD, ten datus from
Borneo landed on Panay island (where Aklan is located) and amicably purchased land from the
native king Marikudo. They had a feast to celebrate. Today, celebrants of the Ati-atihan Festival
paint their faces with black soot. Locals who perform in the parade also wear colorful elaborate
costumes. It can be compared with Mardi Gras in other parts of the world.

On account of the historical influence of the Catholic church, the Ati-Atihan festival is said to
honor the Santo Niño (Christ Child). In fact, the name of Kalibo means “one thousand,” which is
the number of people who were baptized in a single day by early Spanish missionaries.

Maskara Festival

MassKara Festival is an annual festival in Bacolod City with highlights every fourth Sunday of
October with street dancers in colorful costumes, masks and headdresses. Bacolod City invites
you to the “happiest and most colorful festival in the Philippines” which will be a month-long
celebration with concerts, food fests, street parties, and a lot of activities will draw thousands of
visitors to the City of Smiles.
The festival instills among the people the culture of escapism and obscurantism, where they have
to accept and forget their sufferings caused by the exploitation and oppression of the landlords.

In this city, people are encouraged by the organizers, mostly big business and hacenderos (big
landlords), to forget the economic hardships and depression which happen especially during
tiempo muerto (dead season, or off sugar harvest-milling season). Bacolod is the capital city of
Negros Occidental, known as the Sugar Bowl of the Philippines and is part of Western Visayas
in central Philippines.

Originally and ironically, the masks reflected the people’s grief over the loss of their numerous
loved ones when, in 1979, Negros Navigation’s luxury liner MS Don Juan crashed with a tanker.
Five years before, there was a big drop in sugar production. The people of Negros suffered from
the excess of sugar in the world market caused by the Caribbean sugar crisis and the introduction
of sugar substitute like the High Fructose Corn Syrup in the United States. All these led to the
holding of the first Masskara Festival in 1980. Santiago’s original proposal to hold annual parade
using masks to capture the crisis in Negros, was changed by the local elite into street dancing and
merry-making festival. This rich imagery of masks was used by the hacenderos and local
politicians to hide the suffering of the Negrenses. From then on, Masskara Festival became one
of the popular attractions in Negros, drawing thousands of people within and outside the country.

Sinulog Festival

The Sinulog festival is one of the grandest, most distinguished and most colorful festivals in the
Philippines. The major festival is held each year on the third Sunday of January in Cebu City to
honor the Santo Niño, or the child Jesus, who used to be the patron saint of the whole province
of Cebu (since in the Catholic faith Jesus is not a saint, but God). It is fundamentally a dance
ritual which remembers the Filipino people's pagan past and their recognition of Christianity.

The festival features some the country's most colorful displays of ceremony and pageantry:
participants clothe in bright-colored costumes dance to the rhythm of drums and native gongs.
The streets are generally lined with vendors and pedestrians all wanting to witness the street-
dancing. Smaller versions of the festival are also held in different parts of the province, also to
celebrate and honor the Santo Niño. There is also a Sinulog sa Kabataan, which is performed by
the youths of Cebu a week before the Grand Parade.

Historians have renowned that before the first Spaniards came to Cebu, the Sinulog was already
danced by the natives in respect of their wooden god called anitos. Then, on April 7, 1521, the
Portuguese navigator, Fernando de Magallanes arrived and planted the cross on the shores of
Cebu, claiming the territory in the name of the King of Spain. He then offered the image of the
child Jesus, the Santo Niño, as baptismal gift to Hara Amihan, wife of Cebu's Rajah Humabon.
Hara Amihan was later named, Queen Juana in honor of Juana, Carlos I's mother. Along with the
rulers of the island, some 800 natives were also baptized to the Christian faith.

This event is often used as foundation for most Sinulog dances, which presents the coming of the
Spaniards and the presentation of the Santo Niño to the Queen. A famous theme among Sinulog
dances is Queen Juana holding the Santo Niño in her arms and using it to bless her people who
are often worried by sickness caused by demons and other evil spirits.

After Magellan met his death on April 27, 1521 on the shores of Mactan (ruled by Muslim Rajah
Lapu-Lapu), the bits and pieces of his men returned to Spain. However, it took 44 years before
the Spaniards accomplished some measure of success in colonizing the islands and finally the
whole Philippines.

The explorer, Miguel López de Legazpi arrived in Cebu on April 28, 1565 and destroyed the
village ruled by Rajah Tupas. In one of the huts of the burning village, one of Legazpi's soldiers
named Juan Camus found a wooden box containing the image of the Santo Niño lying in the
middle of several native statue. Historians later said that during the 44 years between the coming
of Magellan and Legazpi, the natives of Cebu continued to dance the Sinulog but no longer to
worship their anitos but to show their worship to the Santo Niño.

The Augustinian friars that accompanied Legazpi in his expedition proclaimed the statue
miraculous and built a church on the site where it was found. Th e church was called San
Agustin Church but was later renamed to the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño.
After Juan Camus found the Santo Niño in the burning village, Legazpi was said to have
included the event in his report, entitled "Relation of Voyage to the Philippine Islands." It went
as follows:
"… Your Excellency should know that on that day when we entered this village (Cebu), one of
the soldiers went into a large and well-built house of an indio where he found an image of the
Child Jesus (whose most holy name I pray may be universally worshipped). This was kept in its
cradle, all covered with gold, just as if it were brought from Spain: and only the little cross,
which is generally placed upon the globe in his hands, was lacking. The image was well kept in
that house, and many flowers were found before it, and no one knows for what object or purpose.
The soldier bowed down before it with all reverence and wonder, and brought the image to the
place where the other soldiers were. I pray to the Holy Name of his image, which we found here,
to help us and to grant us victory, in order that these lost people who are unaware of the precious
and rich treasure, which was in their custody, may come to a knowledge of Him."