Each and every month of October, the breathtaking city of Zamboanga, as the “City of Flowers”, commemorates its grand annual Zamboanga Hermosa Festival or also famously identified as Fiesta Pilar accompanied by 12 days and nights of activities and numerous festivities. The gorgeous city of Zamboanga greets a huge number of tourists, both local and foreign alike, to the province’s largest, most flamboyant festival of the season. The two day festivities are pretty much honoring the miraculous image of Our Lady of the Pilar Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Zaragosa, which in turn is also typically referred to as the “Fiesta Pilar” at the renowned Fort Pila who has a unique fiesta in October. The folks of Zamboanga passionately convinced that the lady has acted as their unifying ethnic and heritage symbol.

In honor of her feast day, Zamboanga demonstrates its devotion as well as its commitment with a nine-night procession, the affair comes with live music entertainment, ethnic acts; street parades, fireworks displays as well as one of the extremely astounding components of the celebrations feature a brilliant regatta accompanied by old sailing ships and yachts flashing red, yellow as well as other extremely colorful sails. Additionally there are art exhibitions and also colorful flower shows featuring the botanical natural treasures of Mindanao’s tropical vegetations.

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The Giant Lantern Festival (Ligligan Parul) in San Fernando, Pampanga, Philippines features the city’s most well-known commodity – the illuminated stars better-known as parol.

The Philippines takes Christmas very genuinely, and there’s no place in the Philippines does Christmas just as Pampanga. Pampanga’s merchants are really distinguished for making the nation’s largest as well as most delicate parol.

Each and every year, the cream of the crop make their first appearance in the Giant Lantern Festival, as various barangays of the city vie to create the season’s outstanding parol.

The straightforward star design of the very first parol have progressed into explosions colorful lights – some flower-shaped, some very vaguely star-shaped, and wuite a few are open to interpretation!

The largest parol could be as big as 40 feet across, constructed from crepe paper, softdrink straws, glass, plastic, capiz shell, and different electronics.

Constructing these parol are matters of personal track record of the town’s parol makers – they’ll devote a great number of man-hours as well as a lot of money constructing a parol that won’t likely endure out the entire Christmas season.

History of the Christmas parol

The very first known parol was made in the year 1928, when Francisco Estanislao came up with classic five-pointed star parol to represent the Star of Bethlehem that directed the Wise Men in the direction of an infant named Jesus.

The province of Pampanga took first lead in the manufacturing as well as the conceptualization of parol – later, a lot more cutting edge designs and styles, such as all those highlighting cells of flashing lights, all began from Kapampangan artists, and created a huge splash all over the country.

In Pinoy Christmas terminology, the “Pampanga parol” has developed into a common
term for almost any delicate star lantern.

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The feast of the Black Nazarene is being held on January 9. The devotees of the Black Nazarene assemble by the thousands and they’re all there in high hopes to come near the Black Nazarene and be healed of their health issues or perhaps be endowed with good fortune.

The Black Nazarene is actually a wooden, life-sized image of Jesus Christ that was believed to have been burnt when it was brought to city of Manila. While in the trip, there was fire on board and the Nazarene was burnt. It was charred however, it was free from danger and had been recognized as the Black Nazarene from that point on. A great number of enthusiasts are convinced that the Black Nazarene is a miraculous
icon and is also thought to heal the ill.

Around 1787, the Black Nazarene was requested by Manila’s Archbishop Basilio Sancho de Santas Junta y Rufina to be moved to the Saint John the Baptist chapel in Quiapo, Manila wherein it’s maintained until now. The Black Nazarene had already been through a lot throughout the years. It had live through the fire that damaged the Quiapo church way back in 1791 as well as again in 1929 and was also spared all through the bombing of Manila during the World War 2 in the year 1945. Nonetheless, considering that the original Black Nazarene had survived recurring damages, a replica was made back in the year 1998 and this replica is the one included in the procession all through the Black Nazarene Festival. The authentic Black Nazarene is
stored in safety inside the Quiapo Church.

The procession of the Black Nazarene is a huge celebration for the Filipino people specifically to the Black nazarene devotees. Lots of people gather collectively outside the Quiapo Church to wait patiently for many hours beneath the sun’s rays and in many cases all the way through adverse climate merely to have a peek at the procession of the Black Nazarene. They’d throw face towels to the handlers all through the procession to have these face towels rubbed on the Black Nazarene wooden image as it’s thought that it can heal the ill. Folks who are able to climb and furthermore touch the Black Nazarene is thought to acquire good luck. Along with the thousands of folks continuously pushing each other to get close enough to the Black
Nazarene, you would definitely anticipate any sort of accident to take place. Every single year you’d come across accounts of individuals fainting or having difficulty of breathing and perhaps, worse, some are claimed to have died in the procession. But in spite of all the warnings and difficulties, each year the same group of people continues to keep coming back.

The Black Nazarene is an amazing image of Jesus as people see the Christ to be white-skinned. If you come to think of it, Jesus Christ is without any color and He can be white, black, yellow or red just like the many colored skins of humanity. Having a black concept of Jesus is a brilliant approach to make people be reminded that it doesn’t matter what our color or race is, Jesus Christ is actually just like us.

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The Pintados-Kasadyaan Festival is a merry-making event lasting an entire month, special highlights of
which range from the Leyte Kasadyaan Festival of Festivals, the 17th Pintados Festival Ritual Dance
Presentation to the “Pagrayhak” Grand Parade. These particular celebrations are asserted to have all
started from the feast day of Señor Santo Niño, scheduled every June 29th of the year. The Leyteños
commemorate a spiritual festival in a completely unique as well as colorful way. Since the Visayans
are proficient in the skill of body tattooing, both women and men are keen on tattooing themselves.

The Pintados Festival demonstrates the abundant ethnic traditions, integrating indigenous music and
dances, of the folks of Leyte and Samar. The Leyte Kasadya-an Festival of Festivals, on the other hand,
features the distinctive ethnic heritage and as well as the extremely colorful past of the Province of
Leyte. Established by former Leyte Governor Remedios Loreto-Petilla, the festival was initially held
on May 12, 1996. The celebrations were not all the time held almost every June 29th; the initial three
years saw different dates. It was only in 1999 that the date was permanently fixed to June 29, the Feast
of the Señor Santo Niño de Leyte.

“Kasadyaan” in the Visayan language means merriment and jollity. Various municipal festivals of
Leyte come together in the original capital of Tacloban City for the celebration. There, lively dance-
drama parade of various colors comes together. There’s an essential role that the particular celebration
takes on, and it’s reinvigorating the Leyteños’ sense of great pride. Each and every town mounts a
storyline each of their very own to portray with great pride their local tradition and tales.

The Festival

The Pintados festival of Tacloban City is a Philippine festival having its distinctive appealing flavor.
This Pintados festival recollects Pre-Spanish past of the indigenous Leytenos from wars, epics and folk
religions. The biggest and most anticipated element of the Pintados festival are definitely the ecstatic
performers, painted from top to bottom with designs and styles that seem to be like armor to mimic
the tattooed warriors of our old ancestors. Over the course of the Pintados festival, performers whose
bodies are painted in an astounding assortment of colors and shades fill the streets of Tacloban city. At
first look, they may look outrageous as grown men pour into the streets embellished in such impressive
colors as lustrous blue or neon green. But as you gets the hang of this and sees the dances portrayed,
one gets a peek at the historical past of the folks that once resided on the isles of Leyte so long ago.

The folk dances given by the performers depict a variety of cultures that blossomed ahead of the
Spaniards arrival. Examples of these are worship of idols, native music and epic legends. The hypnotic
rhythms of indigenous musical instruments beat through the air accompanying the dances carried out
on the busy streets as the Pintados festival continues to go. Apart from the folk dances, is the much
likely parade, which crisscrosses the avenues of Tacloban city. The parade commonly starts off at
the Balayuan Towers and cash all over Tacloban Leyte City. The astonished spectators follow the
procession of dancing colors right from the start up until the end. The Pintados festival ends in a great
deal of merrymaking with a distinctive traditional Philippine fiesta, where everybody is welcome to
join the enjoyment and have fun in the Pintados Festival.

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A day-long festival featuring the yearly city fiesta festivity. The fundamental aspect is the Bonok-
bonok, an ethnic Mamanua (IPES) dance carried out by the locals during thanksgiving, worship and as
well as wedding ceremonies.

The introduction to the celebration of the Maradjao-Karajao Festival is the Bulawanon
Barangay “Bulawanon” means beautification. Before the Bonok-bonok festivity held, preliminary
contest between the 22 barangays of Surigao City and 9 coastal barangays is done to spotlight the
month-long celebration that livens up to the household each and every individual family of Surigao
City.

Other activities that one should anticipate are street dancing taken part by various private government
groups making use of artistic costumes, enormous floats as well as compelling chanting of “Viva Señor
San Nicolas! Viva Maradjao Karajao!”.

Tourism potential aside, Surigao is a lot more prominently home to one of the country’s a great deal
of colorful tribes, the Mamanwas. Better known for their artistic patterns, metal accessories as well
as native products, the Mamanwas fill the streets dancing all through the Bonok Bonok Maradjao
Karadjao festival on September 9. Commemorated on the occasion of the feast of San Nicolas de
Tolentino, the Bonok Bonok features the natives’ appreciation to their animistic gods for a abundant
harvest and excellent health.

An assortment of antique historical diggings such as burial coffins jars as well as antique Chinese
kitchen wares found in Panhutungan, Placer is on public display at the Surigaonon Heritage Mini-
Museum located at the Boulevard in Surigao City.

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This internationally acclaimed celebration is a weeklong festivity and thanksgiving for nature’s fruitfull
harvest. Kadayawan Festival is being commemorated every 3rd Week of August. A celebration of the
abundant bounty of fruits and orchids all through the season. Kadayawan hails from the prehistoric
word “madayaw,” a warm as well as friendly greeting also used to describe something which is very
important, superior, attractive, good, or profitable, “Kadayawan” in Mandaya means whatever that
brings in good fortune, a celebration of life, a thanksgiving for the bountiful gifts of nature, the rich
culture, the bounties of harvest and also peacefulness of living. Cultural tribes all around Mt. Apo
normally gathered over the harvest period when they had a plentiful harvest to offer gratitude to their
gods specifically the all-powerful Bathala (supreme God). As indicated by legend, the celebration is
noteworthy due to happiness, singing, and dancing, as well as offerings to their heavenly deities.

The festival is commemorated during the month of August with floats of fresh flowers and fruits,
and indak-indak sa kadalanan or street dancing in brightly colored outfits. Numerous tribes flock the
streets tagging along with them are their colorful tribe costumes and accessories. The city of Davao
comes brimming with life each and every year in the month of August when it facilitates its annual
harvest festival. The streets are decorated with local fruit & vegetables while people hold street dances
with abandon for four days. The harbour is the location for native & power boat competitions. Each
and every one battles for seats to enjoy the Horse Fighting wherein stallions fight each other over the
privileges to mate with a mare. The crowd is occasionally tracked by the horses as many get too close.
In the very last day of the festival, the street is adorned with costumed dancers grooving to the local
beat as well as well-decorated floats with extravagant Mindanao girls as eye candy. It’s a a moment of
fun & excitement. The celebration is not absolute devoid of the Bya’Neng ng Kadayawan or the Miss
Kadayawan beauty competition. Additionally there is the horsefight, a tribal animal show much like the
bullfight in Spain.

History

The festival all started due to a government-initiated program also known as “Unlad Proyekto Davao”
in the year 1986, arranged to bring together the Davaoeños following a severe martial law years as well
as to present the city as a quiet as well as amazing destination to visit and conduct business in. During
that time, it was eventually branded “Apo Duwaling,”a concept derived from the symbols Davao was
famed for: Mt. Apo, the nation’s highest peak; durian, the king of fruits; as well as the widely known
waling-waling; the queen of orchids. Davao is also home of the beautiful Philippine eagle, the country’s
national bird. In the year 1988, the festival was redubbed “Kadayawan sa Dabaw” by Mayor Rodrigo
Duterte to commemorate the city’s completely unique abundance in flowers, fruits, along with its rich
ethnic heritage.

Today, Kadayawan has become a festival of all the festivals, the mother of may other festivals in
the region as it honors Davao’s artistic, cultural and historical heritage, its past personified by the
ancestral “lumads”, its people as they celebrate on the streets, and its floral industry as they parade in
full regalia in thanksgiving for the blessings granted on the city.

“Kadayawan sa Dabaw” is a loving experience with an impact becasue it highlights the past, present
and future of the people of Davao, the Mindanaoans, the Filipino people. Its sights and sounds are
nevertheless superior. Join in on the thrilling experience.

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Adding more color and merriment to Angono town fiesta, commemorated on the 23rd of the month
November, are the “Higantes”, paper mache giants measuring about four to five feet in diameter
and also ten to twelve feet tall. Philippine Rizal Angono’s splendid and greatest festival honoring
San Clemente (the patron saint of fishers) whose figure, fantastic in papal vestment, is held by male
devotees all through the procession followed by “pahadores” (devotees wearing brightly colored
local costumes or perhaps a fishermen’s clothing, wooden shoes and also lugging boat paddles, fish
nets, traps, etc.) and “higantes” (giant paper mache figures). The street activity concludes in a fluvial
procession in Laguna de Bay with all the revelry that’s happening until the image is carried back to its
haven.

HISTORY

The “higante” tradition all started a century ago, when Angono was still a Spanish hacienda. The
hacienda owners worried about expenses banished all festivities with the exception of one annual
fiesta. The townspeople worried about entertainment agreed to make the very best out of a horrible
condition. Utilising a form of art introduced to Mexico by Spanish priests, folks built life-life
caricatures of their Spanish land lords. In common Philippine manner, the fiesta become a sensational
scene as well as a tricky inside joke. There too came a tale that there was once a French man happened
to go by this seaside village of Laguna de Bay as he was cruising from the grandiose Manila Bay.
Attracted to the community being partioned by a river, he forecasted that at some point in time giants
would come out and be very well known. In keeping with his words, Angono can present two national
artists – Carlos “Botong” Francisco in the area of visual arts as well as Professor Lucio D. San Pedro in
the industry of music. A lot more Angono folks who are developing to become big or giants on their
favored area of expertise.

Long before, Angono town fiesta entails “Mag-anak” (family) Higantes comprising three figures, the
father, the mother and the child. Later, in the year 1987, Mr. Perdigon Vocalan thought of the concept
of creating a Higante Festival by which all the barangays in Angono(13 of them) should be depicted
by a couple of Higantes representing the industry or perhaps the characteristics of the barangay. This
concept materialized aided by the finance provided by the Dept. of Tourism and also by the Provincial
Tourism Office and as a result, a year following a seminar and a workshop concerning Higante
Making , the fiesta was bombarded with thirty-nine assorted Higantes. In that very same year too, there
was a competition amongst the Higantes making the festivial even more enjoying worthy to visit.

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The Masskara Festival throughout the years provides the folks of Negros, as well as local and foreign
visitors, an opportunity to drink as well as be merry for 20 days. Initially created to exhibit the
challenges of the employees of Negros, the Masskara Festival has developed into a tool of escapism
as well as a means to generate revenues for large business. It has absolutely made great strides, and it’s
apparent that the path turn away from the progressive goal.

Bacolod City is renowned for the famous Masskara Festival which happens here Oct. 1-20. Local as
well as foreign visitors get the opportunity to experience 20 days of merry making, beer drinking,
eating and street dancing. On the weekend closest to the 19th of October, the largest party in Bacalod is
slated to take place. Bacalod is the capital city of the nation’s sugar-producing province of Bocalenos.

The word Masskara is derived from two words: mass, which means crowd, and the Spanish term cara,
for face; thus creating the double meaning for “mask” and “many faces”. It was originally coined by
Ely Santiago, a painter, cartoonist, and cultural artist, who passionately display in his artworks the
multitude of faces of Negrenses overwhelmed with a number of crises.

A smiling mask, which is the symbol of the fiesta was considered by the event organizers to showcase
the blissful character of the Negrenses even after affected by adverse times in the sugar industry.

The Masskara festival was initially created in 1980 to add color and cheerful atmosphere to the
Bacolod City’s commemoration of its Charter Day anniversary, on 19 October. The symbolic
representation of the celebration – a smiling mask – was utilized by the event organizers to dramatize
the Negrenses cheerful spirit, despite occasional economic downturns in the sugar industry.

All through the week, people coming all throughout the Visayas, gather to the town plaza. They join
Bacoleños in the non-stop round of merrymaking events. Even though you may don’t feel like dancing
and singing, the pig catching as well as the pole climbing contests are worth watching. A number of
people are as well attempting their luck and trying their skills in mask-making competitions, disco king
and queen competitions, coconut-milk drinking among others.

Masks are in control for the day at the Masskara celebration, as brightly-costumed women and
men dance and sway in the busy streets of . Their glowing faces are dazzling, smiling and laughing
in shaped clay or papier-mâché. Every group is represented: civic associations, commercial
establishments, schools, even private and government organizations. They march out in ecstatic crowd
flashing their painted masks and moreover, their detailed clothing, all competing for prizes in judging
that’ll be held in the afternoon. The celebration also benefits Bacolod tourism not just because tourists
flock the metropolis during this period to join the merrymaking but also to purchase the orchids as well
as the lavish handicrafts available for sale.

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Pahiyas Festival – Thanking for the Earth’s Harvest

A day of festive decorations

The Pahiyas has evolved through the years to include many activities. Moreover, it is no longer limited to the town’s church but has become a part of every home. Now, all the houses are decorated with fruits, vegetables, rice stalks, rice grains, flowers and all sorts of agricultural harvests. The harvests are specifically displayed in front of the house so that the parish priest could bless them as he would pass by during the procession.

Residents also make a colorful, leaf-shaped rice wafers, locally known as “kiping.” The dyed kipping is usually sewn together to form a wreath and these wreaths are arranged into a two- or three-layer chandelier, called an “aranya,” which are hung on the windows. Different leaves are also used to add flavor to the kiping. There are also those who produce a variety of tastes and textures by using other ingredients like coffee, cocoa and banana leaves.

Every house and family try to outdo one another in their decorations. There’s an annual competition for the most colorful, most creative and most attractive décor. Once a winner has been declared, these edible decorations are thrown away to the huge crowd as free treats. Some houses also cook the kipings into rice ships.

Festival highlights

The festival’s highlight is a street procession featuring the image of San Isidro Labrador and his wife, Sta. Maria dela Cabeza. The santa’s image carries a basket full of triangulo biscuits, given to the children present during the procession. Adding interest to the procession are giant papier mâché figures of a local farmer and his wife. After the procession, the townspeople enjoy a joyous sharing pf food.

Tourists visiting Lucban to witness the Pahiyas Festival do not consider their experience complete without having tasted the town’s delicious specialties: the Pancit Habhab and the Longganisang Lucban. The pancit habhab is a kind of noodle made from rice flour and is sold on the streets on a piece of banana leaf. The Longganisang Lucban is a local sausage made of ground pork, paprika, oregano extract, salt, pepper and garlic.

The Pahiyas Festival has, without doubt, made Lucban a must-see destination during the summer, especially for tourists exploring the Philippines’ multicultural and multifaceted character.

The Pahiyas Festival is scheduled on May 15, 2011 in Lucban, Laguna.

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