THE VISAYAS is host to the three major festivals of the country—the Ati-atihan of Aklan, the Dinagyang of Iloilo, and the Sinulog of Cebu.

They are held at around the same time of the year, and all celebrate the Santo Niño, which icon was used by the Spanish conquistadors to tame the natives and Christianize the islands in the 16th century.

Of the three, Ati-atihan is the oldest, tracing its roots to a 13th-century Aeta ritual; while Dinagyang has attained the status of premier festival of the country, having been elevated by the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines to the Hall of Fame as the Best Tourism Event in the country.

Started in 1969 as an offshoot of Ati-atihan and renamed in 1977, Dinagyang (Hiligaynon for “merrymaking”) is held every fourth Sunday of January, or a week after Ati-atihan and Sinulog. It has a reputation for costumery and performance, and is the source of choreographers and drummers for other festivals in the country, which hire them to train their own.

This year’s edition of the festival, Jan. 22-23, was attended by Indian Ambassador Shri Yogendra Kumar and Vietnamese Ambassador Vu Xuan Truong; Senators Franklin Drilon, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Miguel Zubiri; the President’s sister Ma. Elena “Ballsy” Aquino-Cruz, who was formally declared as adopted daughter of Iloilo City.
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To see how commercialization and tourism have secularized the Queen Festival of the Philippines and pushed its original religious devotion down the drain, one only has to listen to what the merrymakers are shouting the loudest in the streets. While they are shouting “Viva Señor Santo Niño!” in the Ati-atihan and “Pit Señor!” in the Sinulog, in the Dinagyang it is “Hala bira!”

(It has been observed that the Ati-atihan is the most religious of the three, and certainly the most spontaneous in celebration.)

Holy crap. I’m not going to touch on Duero’s ideas (yet), but there is some astoundingly bad history in evidence here.

First of all, there is no way that the Ati-Atihan is an offshoot of an Aeta ritual; because no ritual exists that it could have. Just because it’s name is taken from the Atis language does not mean that that is where it’s origins are from. As well, the patron saint of Kalibo (where the Ati-atihan originates) is not the Santo Nino, but John the Baptist. So, this idea that the fiesta developed because the Santo Nino was the patron saint is invalid.

The roots of the fiesta are found in the very words that he so ignorantly dismisses: “Hala Bira!” Hala Bira is in fact originally from the Ati-Atihan (ignoring that he seems to favor the Sinulog, a totally made-up fiesta that only began in the 1980s). Since the Dinagyang is supposedly an offshoot of the Ati-Atihan it is perfectly reasonable that the cry of the Ati-Atihan is found in the Dinagyang.

I’m going to defer to Anding Roces from his book Fiesta to describe the true history of the Ati-Atihan:

The Ati-Atihan had its beginnings in a cannoned fort named after the Santo Nino. Cannoning then was a hot and sooty business…To the beating of knobbed gongs and cries of ‘Allah! Allah! Patay! Patay!’ the Moros attacked. Invoking their fort patron, the Santo Nino, the Capiz cannoneers unleashed their thunder. When the smoke of battle cleared, the victorious cannoneers emerged black as Atis. The whole town gathered…shouting “Viva Santo Nino! Viva Santo Nino!” In the celebration that followed, many sooted their faces and bodies to identify themselves with the courageous cannoneers. The Ati-Atihan is an extension of that moment and to this day, the cry of the Ati-Atihan is ‘Hala Bira!’ - to strike a blow.

The history and knowledge of the Ati-Atihan demonstrated in this article is pathetic. By the way, Dinagyang has only a small mention in the Fiesta:

The Dinagyang only started a few years ago. It is not a spontaneous festival like the Ati-Atihan. Tourists remain as spectators and the entire parade is rehearsed to perfection.

Which means it’s role as the Queen of Philippine fiestas is shaky at best. The fact is the Dinagyan was always a secular affair. If they want to get back to its roots (so to speak) they best start by understanding how and why the Ati-Atihan developed (since that is what they modeled it after) and, more importantly, what it means.

(Source: ascottyfollower)

The Pahiyas

I’ve always had a bit of a soft-spot for fiestas (probably because of who started my exploration of Philippine history).

He aptly described them as our “highest community expression”. And this is an remarked truth about fiestas: they are one of the social organizations that binds a Philippine community together. They also are one of the lingering threads that connects modern Philippines to our Spanish past and, ultimately, to our pre-Hispanic history. They are not just the our highest community expression, in their way they express much of what is our soul.

Today is the Pahiyas Festival of Lucban. Lucban is a famed center of pagan and Catholic religiousness: it is one of the unique towns in the Philippines.

The dominant leitmotif of the pahiyas is the kiping (made from rice paste and cast in multiple colors). The pahiyas and Lucban fairly explodes with colors on fiesta day.

The patron saint is San Isidro Labrador, patron saint of farmers. In the Philippines, he represents as much farmers as the introduction of the plow, and the domestication of the carabao. Much like everywhere else, agricultural development, the shift from sustenance to surplus farming, allowed bigger communities. In the Philippine setting, we sometimes point to the Spanish-era policy of grouping under the bell, as what drove town formation. But, without concurrent innovation in agriculture this would not have been sustainable. The pahiyas (and the other carabao fiestas) celebrate the two driving forces behind the formation of the Philippine nation: agriculture and Catholicism.

Pahiyas is roughly translated as “peaceful offering”. And that is what is at the heart of the fiesta: a thanksgiving and veneration of Nature and a reminder (and thanks as well) to San Isidro for a harvest.

Lucban grew in the shadow of Mt. Banahaw (a famed pagan and Catholic pilgrimage site); it was, in the 19th century, the site of the Hermano Pule revolt. The town, in it’s celebration of the pahiyas connects so many threads of Philippine culture and history together.

It is the fiesta at its syncretic best.

Note: Just got the image from Google search. So thanks to the uploader!