Learn more

This article needs additional citations for verification.

The Ati-Atihan Festival is a feast held annually on January in honor of the Santo Niño (Infant
Jesus), Held on the third Sunday, in the town of Kalibo Philippines in the island
of Panay originally came from Batan, Aklan, then adopted later by some neighboring towns. The
name Ati-Atihan means "to be like Atis" or "to make believe Atis", the local name for
the Aeta aborigines who first settled in Panay Island and other parts of the archipelago.

Ati-Atihan

An Ati-Atihan participant

Observed byAklanTypeReligious / CulturalDateThird Sunday of January

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 has inspired many other Philippine Festivals including the Sinulog
Festival of Cebu and Dinagyang of Iloilo City, both adaptations of the Kalibo's Ati-Atihan
Festival, and legally holds the title "The Mother of All Philippine Festivals" in spite of the other
two festivals' claims of the same title.

The costumes worn at the festival is patterned after the African tribal design like those seen at the
Rio Carnaval.

HistoryEdit

A 1200 A.D. event explains the origins of the festival. A group of 10 Malay chieftains
called Datus, fleeing from the island of Borneo settled in the Philippines, and were granted
settlement by the Ati people, the tribes of Panay Island. Datu Puti made a trade with the natives
and bought the plains for a golden salakot, brass basins and bales of cloth. They gave a very long
necklace to the wife of the Ati chieftain. Feasting and festivities followed soon after.

Some time later, the Ati people were struggling with famine as the result of a bad harvest. They
were forced to descend from their mountain village into the settlement below, to seek the
generosity of the people who now lived there. The Datus obliged and gave them food. In return,
the Ati danced and sang for them, grateful for the gifts they had been given.

The festivity was originally a pagan festival from this tribe practicing Animism, and their
worshiping their anito god. Spanish missionaries gradually added a Christian meaning. Today, the
Ati-Atihan is celebrated as a religious festival.

In 2012, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the ICHCAP
of UNESCO published Pinagmulan: Enumeration from the Philippine Inventory of Intangible
Cultural Heritage. The first edition of the UNESCO-backed book included the Ati-atihan Festival,
signifying its great importance to Philippine intangible cultural heritage. The local government of
Aklan, in cooperation with the NCCA, is given the right to nominate the Ati-atihan Festival in
the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.[1]