The 

Ati-Atihan festival is a Philippine festival held annually

in January in honor of the Santo Niño (Holy Child or Infant
Jesus) in several towns of the province of Aklan, Panay Island.
The biggest celebration is held during the third Sunday of January
in the town of Kalibo, the province’s capital. The name Ati-
Atihan means "to imitate the Ati people".
The festival consists of religious processions and street-parades,
showcasing themed floats, dancing groups wearing colorful
costumes, marching bands, and people sporting face and body
paints. The street parade is known as Sadsad, which is also what the locals call their way of dancing where the
foot is momentarily dragged along the ground in tune to the beat played by the marching bands. It has inspired
other Philippine Festivals such as Dinagyang of Iloilo City and Sinulog festival of Cebu, thus, it is known as the
Mother of All Philippine Festivals

The Sinulog-Santo Niño Festival is an annual cultural and

religious festival held on the third Sunday of January in Cebu
City, and on the fourth Sunday of January in Carmen, Cebu,
and is the centre of the Santo Niño Catholic celebrations in the
Philippines.
The festival is the largest and considered to be the first and the
grandest festival in the Philippines, with every celebration of
the festival routinely attracting around 1 to 15 million people
all over the world every year. Aside from the religious aspect
of the festival, Sinulog is also famous for its street parties,
usually happening at night before and at the night of the main
festival.

Panagbenga Festival (transl. Flower Festival) is a

month-long annual flower occasion in Baguio. The term is
of Kankanaey origin, meaning "season of blooming". The
festival, held in February, was created as a tribute to the city's
flowers and as a way to rise up from the devastation of the 1990
Luzon earthquake. The festival includes floats that are covered
mostly with flowers not unlike those used in Pasadena's Rose
Parade. The festival also includes street dancing, presented by
dancers clad in flower-inspired costumes, that is inspired by the
Bendian, an Ibaloi dance of celebration that came from the Cordilleras.

The MassKara Festival of Bacolod City is one the

biggest festivals in the Philippines. Believe it or not, the festival
has been giving local and international visitors the chance to have
fun, drink, and party on the streets of Bacolod for over 30 years
now!
This annual festival, which is similar to Brazil’s Rio Carnival,
literally translates to “many faces,” and is celebrated every October
in Bacolod. Because of the smiling faces of the mask, Bacolod
City got the nickname of The City of Smiles. 

Dinagyang Festival is one of the biggest and world-class

festivals in the Philippines. It traces the history of devotion to
the Holy Child Jesus popularly known to Filipino devotees as Sr. Sto. Nino. The festival also commemorates
the arrival of the Malay settlers and the legendary barter of Panay Island from the natives called called Ati.
Dinagyang season in Iloilo City is on the first month of the year and highlighted with an Ati Tribe Competition
every fourth Sunday of January. The participants show impressive choreography with colorful tribal costumes
and striking props to present socio-cultural and religious tableaus depicting life in Panay before the Spanish
colonization and the advent of Catholicism in the country.

The Moriones is a lenten festival held annually

on Holy Week on the island of Marinduque,
Philippines. The "Moriones" are men and
women in costumes and masks replicating the
garb of biblical Imperial and Royal Roman
soldiers as interpreted by locals. The Moriones
tradition has inspired the creation of other
festivals in the Philippines where cultural
practices is turned into street festivals.
It is a colorful festival celebrated on the island
of Marinduque in the Philippines. The
participants use morion masks to depict the Roman soldiers and Syrian mercenaries within the
story of the Passion of the Christ. The mask was named after the 16th and 17th century
Morion helmet. The Moriones refers to the masked and costumed penitents who march around
the town for seven days searching for Longinus. Morions roam the streets in town from Holy
Monday to Easter Sunday scaring the kids, or engaging in antics or surprises to draw
attention. This is a folk-religious festival that re-enacts the story of Saint Longinus, a Roman
centurion who was blind in one eye. The festival is characterized by colorful Roman costumes,
painted masks and helmets, and brightly colored tunics.

The “Subli,” a hauntingly beautiful dance with

contortive moves made by men and women to rhythmic
beatings of the drum and clacking of castanets. The Subli is a
form of religious ceremony which originated in the barrio
of Alitagtag where the Holy Cross, the patron saint of Bauan,
was found. Formerly, it was danced only in that barrio, and at
the front of the Holy Cross, but it is now danced everywhere.
It was said that the first dance of its kind was performed by
the women, that wife harshly treated by the husband, when
after seeing her bucket being filled with water, sprang from her kneeling position and by his joy, did all the
kinds of motions to express her thankfulness. 

The Kadayawan is an annual festival in Davao City, Philippines. Its “Kadayawan” name derives from the
friendly Dabawenyo greeting “Madayaw”, meaning
good, valuable, superior or beautiful. Hence,
the Kadayawan Festival in Tagalog means
“pasasalamat at pagpapahalaga”. Kadayawan is a
celebration of life, a thanksgiving for nature’s gifts,
the wealth of culture, the bounties of harvest, and
serenity.

The Kadayawan Festival of Davao started in the year

1986 as a group of tribal festivals put together to
showcase the thanksgiving rituals of the indigenous tribes of Mindanao. A long time ago, Davao’s ethnic tribes
residing at the foot of Mount Apo would converge during a bountiful harvest. This ritual serves as their
thanksgiving to the gods particularly to the “Manama” (the Supreme Being). Although times have changed, this
practice of thanksgiving or “pahinungod” is still very much practiced by modern-day Dabawenyos. This
tradition flourished and evolved into an annual festival of thanksgiving in Davao. Today, the Kadayawan
Festival has evolved into a week-long colorful, and energetic celebration of life and bountiful harvests.
Lucban celebrates the Pahiyas Festival every May
15 in honor of the patron saint of farmers, St Isidore
the Labourer. Beginning with a 6:00am mass at
the Lucban Church, this festival showcases a street of
houses which are adorned with fruits, vegetables,
agricultural products, handicrafts and kiping, a rice-
made decoration, which afterwards can be eaten
grilled or fried. The houses are judged and the best
one is proclaimed the winner. Every year, tourists
roam the municipality to witness the decoration of
houses. Nowadays, Pahiyas Festival is a week long
celebration starting every 15 May.

Festival in the
Philippines
Trinidad, Aslhey C.
Grade 7 MCR-LIRIO
Physical Education

A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect of that
community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival
constitutes typical cases of glocalization, as well as the high culture-low culture interrelationship. Next to
religion and folklore, a significant origin is agricultural. Food is such a vital resource that many festivals are
associated with harvest time. Religious commemoration and thanksgiving for good harvests are blended in
events that take place in autumn, such as Halloween in the northern hemisphere and Easter in the southern.