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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