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A
three-day fiesta
in the third week
of January on the island of Panay (Visayas)
The
wildest among Philippine fiestas!
The
festival is a Catholic festival in honour of Santo Niņo.
During the last
day of this
festival (fiesta), a parade is characteristic, with celebrants who paint their faces black,
wear sometimes masks and rather exceptional costumes.
The
origin of the Atis dances dates from the period before the Spaniards
arrived on Panay. The typical dance belonged already to the local Atis
people in that pre-colonial period.
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In
January,
in
honour of
the
miraculous image of the Santo Niņo.
In
colourful costumes
people of Cebu make their way through
the
streets while dancing the Sinulog, a traditional and ritual dance.
The dance is accompanied by the sound of the drums:
all the time moving
two steps forward followed by one
step backward.
The Sinulog was already
danced by the natives long before the Spaniards arrived in the
Philippines. It was only in 1980, that the first Sinulog parade
was organized. From then on it grew up to an enormous festival with a
very large parade. |
A
month-long festival in May
in
honour of
the
Holy Mary
Flores de
Mayo
is a
Catholic festival introduced by the Spaniards. The
last day of the festival is highlighted by a pageant called Santa
Cruzan.
The Santa Cruzan
is
a procession in honour of the finding of the Holy Cross in the year 326
A.D. by Reyna (Queen) Helena,
mother of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. It was the wooden,
Holy Cross, on which Jesus Christ was supposed to have been nailed.
Long
time ago Flores de Mayo and the Santa Cruzan were blended together in one festival.
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The largest procession in the
country through the streets of Quiapo in metro
Manila
Every
year on the 9th of January and on Good Friday, barefooted men carry a life-sized
statue through the streets of Quiapo in Metro Manila.
The
procession dates from the 17th century.
Thousands
of men parade through the streets with the black wooden statue of Jesus
(of Nazarene).
Everybody who is in the
neighbourhood of
the statue tries to touch the statue. People
believe that a miracle can happen after touching it. |
