The story of miracle behind the Ati-atihan Festival

Filipinos celebrate the Ati-atihan Festival every January. The celebration is

known to be a form of devotion to the Santo Niño. What many Filipinos do not
know is that there’s a richer story behind the festival.
The story starts with an old couple in Barangay Naile in the early early-1700s.
An unnamed fisherman went to catch fish in the river. Instead of catching fish,
he caught a piece of wood instead. He kept trying to throw the wood away, but
it would return to his net every time. Feeling dismayed over his misfortune, he
brought the wood home and put it aside to use as fuel. He went to sleep with
his wife but was later roused by a beating sound nearby. They were surprised
to find the carving of a child in place of the piece of wood.
The couple placed the wooden child in their altar and started receiving blessings
like abundant fish harvests. After several weeks the fisherman went to a priest
to seek advice. The priest instructed the fisherman to bring the wooden child to
the Ibajay Parish. Several days later, the townspeople started to wonder why
the piece of wood always disappeared from the parish only to be found back
again at the fisherman’s home. They eventually took this as a sign that they
needed to repent and seek forgiveness for their sins. As part of their penance,
they blackened their faces with coal and dressed in rags. The piece stopped
disappearing from the parish after they started doing this ritual.
One day, Spaniards from Mindoro tried to invade Ibajay. The townspeople
fought back, and dedicated their victory to the statue. To this day, the symbolic
battle continues to be commemorated as part of the Ati-atihan Festival in Ibajay.
In 1978, Padre Fernando de Legaspi of Malinao got word of the yearly Ibajay
celebration. He walked several kilometers to reach the town, witnessed the
revelry and decided to duplicate the celebrations when he was assigned in the
town of Kalibo. And that was the start of the yearly Ati-atihan festival celebrated
in Aklan.