After the festive month of December, the central part of the Philippines roars more with their festivals. The Visayas celebrates many festivals during January and there are three famous festivals during this month from different provinces namely the Sinulog of Cebu, the Ati Atihan of Kalibo, Aklan and the Dinagyang of Iloilo.
Among the three festivals, the Sinulog is perhaps the most colorful and most famous topped with massive commercialization. Celebrated every third Sunday of January, this festival is held in honor of the Child Jesus or the Santo Nino and how the natives then were baptism as Christians by Magellan himself. Millions of people flock Cebu for the Sinulog from tourists, devotees and even photographers with all those picturesque costumes during the street dancing.
For this year, Sinulog 2010 is celebrated officially from January 8th till 17th which is the highlight with all those street dancing. The third Sunday of the January is all the fiesta of the Queen City of the South but Sinulog -related activities like trade fairs, opening salvo, photo exhibits and even beauty pageants have been held earlier some as early as December.
If you want a less commercialized and more solemn festival, then opt to experience the Ati- Atihan festival. Known as the “Mother of all Philippine Festivals”, the people of Aklan have been celebrating the Ati Atihan for hundreds of years. The main distiction of the Ati Atihan is how the dancers were covered in soot and dark pigment to mimic the Atis which are the original settlers of Panay island before the Malays came.
The first Ati Atihan festival is tribal in nature and just in a few centuries that Christianity spread, they have incorporated the Child Jesus in the Ati Atihan. Like the Sinulog, it is also celebrated every third Sunday of January and for Ati Atihan 2010, the celebration is from January 11-17, 2010.
I have written a more in depth article about the Ati Atihan festival in an online travel magazine. To read my article about the Ati Atihan, click here.
The word Dinagyang comes from the Hiligaynon word, “dagyang” which means “to be happy” and it is celebrated every fourth Sunday of January, a week after the Sinulog and the Ati- Atihan. Among the three festivals, the Dinagyang of Iloilo is the youngest and its origin can be traced back in 1969 when the image of the Santo Nino of Cebu was welcomed in the city.
The Dingayang is more the same of the Ati Atihan if you based it on the prominence of the “artificial” black colored skintone of the dancers. Like the other festivals, it has combined both tribal and religious aspects of the celebrations in honor of the Child Jesus and the coming of the Malay settlers to the island of Panay.
For this year, the Dinagyang is from January 22-24 with activities like street dancing, concerts, food festivals and many more.
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