Posts Tagged ‘Festivals’

• Panagbenga Festival (February) – Every year, Baguio celebrates the Flower Festival or Panagbenga. It is a major tourrism event in the city, drawing more local and foreign tourists with an array of floats lavishly decorated with flowers. There are floral street choreographed dancing to the tune of the panagbenga hymn performed by the flower-clad participants. The biggest Baguio Festival likewise features garden shows, exhibits, lectures, floral arrangement competitions, market encounter, and fireworks display.
• Baguio Ecumenical Week (March) – Focuses on Baguio as a spiritual center. The first commemoration initiated by the religious sector of the non-government organizations started in March 1991 with the theme “Baguio, a journey to )spiritual renewal.”
• Baguio Foundation Day (September 1) – Commemorates the anniversary of Baguio’s becoming a chartered city in 1909. Art exhibits, parades, programs, cultural shows and sister-city programs are scheduled.
• Baguio Arts Festivals (November to December) – This is an annual event started in November 1989 sponsored by the Baguio Arts Guild, the Department of Tourism and the Cultural Center of the Philippines. This envisioned Baguio to be the permanent venue for the festival. The features of the event are ethnic and visual arts, which include photography film, video sculpture and art installations.
• Impakabsat (November) – A trade and tourism fair showcasing the products and services of the Cordilleras.
• Planting Season – The Ifugao plant rice according to the following calendar:
  In the second half of December, they begin to sow the seed. From the beginning of February to the middle of March, they transplant the first seedlings. From the middle of April until the middle of June, they weed the feilds. In July, the harvest takes place. From the beginning of August until the middle of December they work on improvemets to the rice terraces and prepare the feilds for the next seeding.

• Banaue Imbayah – It is three-day festival, which is celebrated every four years. Activities include an ethnic parade portraying the evolution of the Ifugao culture followed by ethnic games participated by barangay delegations. This festival though has not been sustained to date.
• Tungoh ad Hungduan – This event is held in April. Tungoh are rest days for the farmers in Hungduan after the planting season. The rest of the municipality and tourists are invited to a cultural night of songs, dances and ethnic parades held on a mountain top.
• Tig-ao Festival – This festival is also held in April. Tig-ao is a victory fest among Mayoyaos. It commemorates ancient rituals and features ethnic games.
• Gotad ad Hingyon, Gotad ad Kiangan – Also held in April, Gotad is one special day in 12 feasts celebrated by the royal class to please their gods.
• Harvest time – Whenever the Ifugaos reap their harvests, a festivity is sure to take place. Free tapuy or rice wine and free food are shared to guests.

Ati-Atihan is celebrated every third weekend of January, and it is a riotous fiesta that lures in many a reveler. Tribal drums resonate throughout the street parades as local dancers don colorful costumes for performances practiced months in advance. The patron saint in focus is Sto. Niño the child Jesus. For the Ati-Atihan, crowds flock to the center of Kalibo, where the fiesta is most popularly celebrated.

Carabao Festival
may 14
Pulilan, Bulacan

The farmer’s best friend takes on a different task on this day as he is scrubbed clean, his horns rubbed shiny, and adorned to the hilt by his owners. The beasts of burden are then taken to the church plaza where they await to be blessed, then are hitched to decorated carts which they pull around town in a parade. Later in the day, special games are held, including a carabao race, a special show of carabao tricks (like kneeling on their front legs) and other fun activities.

Obando Fertility Rites
May 17-19
Obando, Bulacan

Childless women, some accompanied by their husbands, travel all the way to this town in Bulacan to participate in a procession where they dance as they chant their prayers to bear a child.

Peñafrancia Festival
Third Saturday of September
Baga City, Camarines Sur
Another tributes and thanksgiving to the Virgin Mary, this time to the Our Lady of Peñafranca, patron saint of the Bicol region. A fluvial  parade is the highlight of this festivity, where the image of the Lady is placed on the main barge, while hundreds of smaller boats ply the river behind her.

Masskara Festival
Second week of October
Bacolod, Negros Occidental

The festival that made Bacolod famous began as an event to inspire the locals to face the hard times with a smiling face, thus masks with smiling faces are worn by revelers who join the parade. Street dancing, drum beating, drinking, eating, and just being merry-all this show the resiliency of Negrenses and their zest of life.