M.A.P.E.

Philippine festivals are celebrations to express gratitude for a

good harvest in honor of the town's patron saint. ... For many
Filipinos, fiestas are important because of the miraculous power
of the saints. It is believed that the saints are responsible for all
the good fortune and favor one receives. Festivals contribute
immensely to feelings of social cohesion. Many such
celebrations focus on cultural or ethnic topics and seek to inform
community members of their traditions. They involve
community elders sharing stories and experiences; setting
templates for maintaining unity among families. Festivals are
important if we are to understand our history, from social trends
to the economy. They record the patterns of cultural change,
bring communities together and broaden our cultural horizons.
Preservation of culture can be achieved by keeping cultural
elements, such as food, clothing, shelter, and language and can
take many forms. One such way to do so is to display tangible
cultural assets in museums. Generally, this method is considered
as “authentic” and “memorializing” preservation.
Similarly, festivals can contribute to the preservation of
intangible cultural assets such as living cultural knowledge,
identity, meaning, and core values embedded in certain
traditional customs or rituals, which museums cannot adequately
display.
Due to its flexibility, the festival format can preserve and
transmit significant meaning and core values of a culture in
more active or communicative and interactive ways.
Festivals share a characteristic of celebration, providing the host
community with a specially delineated time and space in which
to recognize and raise public awareness regarding cultural
significance. Symbols and rituals in a traditional festival can
give shape to an abstract tradition, and creative, modern ways
are sometimes utilized for this cultural representation.