1.
Ati-Atihan Festival
Location: Kalibo, Aklan Philippines
Aklan plays host to the annual Ati-atihan festival, coinciding with the third Sunday of January. Like the
Sinulog Festival of Cebu, the Ati-atihan celebrates the many miracles of the Child Jesus or Santo Nino.
The festival is probably more well-known for the black paint that most participants put on their
bodies.The black paint that covers the whole body contrasts starkly with the colorful costumes and
ornaments.
The Ati-Atihan, though honoring the Santo Nino, has tribal and pagan origins. But together with the
city’s Christianization, the festival has taken a new meaning.
The Ati-Atihan Festival is a feast held annually in January in honor of the Santo Niño (Infant Jesus),
concluding on the third Sunday, in the island and town of Kalibo, Aklan in thePhilippines.
Ati-atihan means “to be like aetas”or “make believe ati’s.” Aetas were the primary settlers in the islands
according to history books. They too are the earliest settlers of Panay Island where the province of Aklan
is.[1]
The festival consists of tribal dance, music, accompanied by indigenous costumes and weapons, and
parade along the street. Christians, and non-Christians observe this day with religious processions. It is
the mother of all Philippine Festivals because Sinulog Festival of Cebu and Dinagyang of Iloilo are
adaptations of the Kalibo Ati-Atihan Festival.
Aklan plays host to the annual Ati-atihan festival, coinciding with the third Sunday of January. Like the
Sinulog Festival of Cebu, the Ati-atihan celebrates the many miracles of the Child Jesus or Santo Nino.
The festival is probably more well-known for the black paint that most participants put on their bodies.
The black paint that covers the whole body contrasts starkly with the colorful costumes and ornaments.
The Ati-Atihan, though honoring the Santo Nino, has tribal and pagan origins. But together with the
city’s Christianization, the festival has taken a new meaning.
2. Dinagyang Festival
Location: Ilo-ilo City Philippine
If you have the Sinulog or the Ati-atihan on your travel itinerary to catch the colorful Visayan Festivals in
January, then surely your next stop would be Ilo-ilo, where the Dinagyang Festival is held on the fourth
Sunday of January.
The Dinagyang Festival still venerates the Child Jesus, but also commemorates the conversion of Filipino
tribes to Christianity.
Today’s Dinagyang Festival is much anticipated with several events serving as highlights, including the
search for Iloilo’s prettiest ladies in the Miss Dinagyang pageant, the Atis street dancing, and the
Kasadyahan street dancing. Like the Sinulog and Ati-atihan, prayers, drum beats and colorful costumes
litter the streets of Iloilo for the Dinagyang.The Dinagyang is a religious and cultural festival in Iloilo
City, Philippines held on the fourth Sunday of January, or right after the Sinulog In Cebu and the Ati-
Atihan in Aklan. It is held both to honor the Santo Niño and to celebrate the arrival on Panay of Malay
settlers and the subsequent selling of the island to them by the Atis.
3. MassKara Festival
Location: Bacolod City Philippines
Bacolod City holds its Charter Day on the 19 th of October every year. Coinciding with its Charter Day is
the MassKara Festival, a week-long activity that is currently dubbed as the Festival of Smile, a take on
Bacolod’s own monicker as the City of Smiles.
Unlike other festivals in the Visayas, however, the MassKara is not religious or tribal in nature. Instead,
the Festival ironically traces its roots on tragedy. The festival was first held in 1980, at a time when sugar
cane and sugar prices plummeted and the livelihood of Bacolenos suffered. It was also during that year
that a terrible maritime tragedy left more than 700 Negrenses dead when the Don Juan and the tanker
Tacloban City collided with each other and sank.
To eclipse the tragedy and the sorrow, Bacolod held its first MassKara Festival. The term MassKara was
coined by Ely Santiago, meaning many faces. It also became the festival’s trademark: smiling masks worn
by the participants.
Today’s Masskara features the search for the festival queen, street carnivals, competitions, food fests,
sports and music events, garden and agricultural shows and other activities.The MassKara Festival is a
festival held each year in Bacolod City, the capital of Negros Occidental province in the Philippines every
third weekend of October nearest October 19, the city’s Charter Inauguration Anniversary.
4.Sinulog Festival
Millions of people participated in Cebu City last Sunday to celebrate the Sinulog Festival, one of the most
famous festivals in the Philippines. It was attended, not only by Filipinos, but people coming from
different parts of the globe also went to witness the celebration. The magnificence of the festival made
Filipinos, as well as our fellow Asians, refer to it as the “Mother of all Festivals”. From the colorful and
well-made costumes of the dancers, to the beautiful dances and to the music brought by the drums,
trumpets, and the native gongs, the Sinulog Festival never ceases to amaze its audience.
For 32 years, the Sinulog Festival is a traditional celebration in Cebu City held every third Sunday of
January to honor the Santo Niño (Child Jesus). Basically, the festival is done by a dance ritual, in which it
tells the story of the Filipino people’s pagan past and their acceptance of Christianity. The word
“Sinulog” means “graceful dance”, wherein it all started in 1980 with a simple dance that represents the
“sulog” (or current) of a river in Cebu.
With the celebration’s evolution, the Sinulog Festival has become a month long tradition in Cebu. The
most-awaited feature, nevertheless, is the Sinulog Grand Parade which was held on the 15 th day of
January. “One Beat, One Dance, One Vision. Cebu – City of Culture” was the theme adopted for the 2012
Sinulog Festival.
As the festival becomes more and more famous each year, tourists would never want to miss the
opportunity to watch it and became more and more commercialized. The festival now, not only consists
of costumes and dances, but also contests, such as art exhibits, beauty pageants, photo contests, and
singing and dancing contests. Participants may also join the festival’s activities, such as concerts, cultural
shows, fireworks display, fun runs, and street fairs. For the past 18 years, it has made the Filipinos
residing in New Zealand celebrate their own version each year, a proof on how big of an influence the
festival is. It has also been recognized as the “City of Culture” by the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN).
5. Pintados festival
The Pintados Festival is a cultural religious festival in Tacloban in view of the body-painting conventions
of the old inked “pintados” warriors. In 1986, the Pintados Foundation, Inc. was framed by the general
population of Tacloban to arrange this celebration out of appreciation for Sr. Santo Nino. The
celebration, formally called Leyte Pintados-Kasadyaan Festival and furthermore known as the
“Celebration of Festivals,” is held yearly on June 29, the day of the Feast of the Senor Santo Nino de
Leyte.
The most courageous warriors were vigorously décorated in tattoos which secured every last bit of their
bodies, go to foot. Without a doubt, these men were in truth such an abnormal sight, to the point that
western teachers thought of them as startling and ignoble upon their first looks of these warriors. Be
that as it may, as time passed, they figured out how to see the tattoos as a piece of the life of local
individuals and even as an indication of magnificence for them. With the progression of time, as the
story is with all things, the old cleared a path for the new.
This Pintados celebration encourages us to see the value and excellence of the customs of the nation’s
predecessors. It gives us the chance to feel an uncommon direct affair, the experience of culture.The
conventions of inking pintados and worshiping earth spirits were supplanted as modernization came.
However, these conventions are still recollected with the festival of the Pintados celebration.
6. Sandugo Festival
The main highlights of the Sandugo Festival are the street parade followed by a street dancing
competition and then the re-enactment of the Blood Compact. The street parade and subsequent
competition is participated in by different high schools in Tagbilaran, including entries from Local
Government Units (LGUs) or municipalities as well as guests from other cities and provinces.
The Sandugo Festival is an annual historical celebration that takes place every year in Tagbilaran City on
the island of Bohol in the Philippines. This festival commemorates the Treaty of Friendship between
Datu Sikatuna, a chieftain in Bohol, and Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi
7. Binirayan Festival
The Binirayan Festival commemorates the legend of the arrival of the ten Bornean datus on the island of
Aninipay now known as Panay. (See the legend of Maragtas.) As Governor Evelio B. Javier, the Father of
Binirayan Festival, reminded the Antiqueños during the earlier celebrations, “let us gather the strands
and memories of our past, as we look back with pride, that we may look ahead with confidence to
Antique tomorrow.”
Binirayan Festival is a popular entry on the Philippines’ social calendar of events. It is a month-long
festival that begins in early December, so you have plenty of time to visit and enjoy the festivities!
The festival is celebrated in Antique Province as a way to commemorate the arrival of the ten Bornean
Datus in Hamtic town way back in the mid-19 th century Borneo region. The fascinating thing about
Binirayan is that contrary to popular belief, this event is held to honor the Malay roots of locals in
Antique.
8. Manggahan Festival
The Manggahan Festival is the signature cultural event in Guimaras, a small island nestled between
Panay and Negros in the Western Visayas region. As the name suggests, the festival is a celebration of
the abundance of this tropical fruit that has brought many good fortunes to the province year after
year.And Guimaras has every right to hold this kind of event. Mangoes that grow in the province, after
all, are often cited to be the the sweetest, most luscious ones in the whole entire world. This is the
reason why the local government is calling the event the “sweetest fiesta” in the country. The province
holds the Manggahan Festival every May, usually for two weeks. This is when mangoes go in season, the
time of the year when they are ripe for picking.
9. Sarakiki Festival
Sarakiki-Hadang Festival is celebrated in Calbayog City, Western Samar during the primary seven day
stretch of September. It is featured with an introduction of road artists dressed like chickens and doing
their chicken’s romance movements. Sarakiki is a custom move and hadang is the offering, so implies it
is custom move offering of the Warays to their divinity or gods. Calbayognons trust that spirits involve a
place of summon over the intensity of nature which can cause hurt or do well in the public arena.
Ceremonies are held to satisfy the spirits, amid feasts and different events like planting, abundant
collect season, dry spell, thrashing of the adversary, in the midst of awful pandemics, and cure of the
debilitated. They do the customs or function for couple days. They offer local chicken as penances to
adore the spirits. Generally, our progenitors additionally utilize dark quill and white-plume chicken as
the offering for the spirits.
This colorful celebration portrays the developments of a chicken as it endeavors to court a hen or test
another chicken to battle.
