In the Tagalog region, this custom and celebration started after the declaration of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 and after the publication circa 1867 of Mariano Sevilla’s translation of the devotional Flores de Maria or Mariquit na Bulaclac na sa Pagninilaynilay sa Buong Buan nang Mayo ay Inihahandog nang manga Devoto cay Maria Santisima (The Flowers of Mary or the Beautiful Flowers that in the Meditations During the Whole Month of May are Offered by Devotees to Mary the Holiest). A Santacruzan is a religious-historical beauty pageant held in many cities, towns and even small villages throughout the Philippines during the month of May. One of the most colorful May-time festivals in the Philippines which represent the finding of the Holy Cross by Queen Helena, mother of Constantine the Great. Many movie and television personalities participate in the events and are featured as major sagalas and escorts. The festivity celebrates the search of the Holy Cross by Queen Helena (Reina Elena) and her son, the newly converted emperor Constantine. After the Holy Cross was found in Jerusalem and brought back to Rome, there was an enjoyable celebration for thanksgiving.

This colorful pageant parade is arranged in this order:

1. Matusalém (Methuselah)- bearded and bent with age, he is depicted as riding a cart and looking preoccupied with toasting some grains of sand in a pan over a fire. This is a reminder that everything in this world is passing and will end up like the dust which he is toasting.

2. Reyna Banderáda (Queen with a banner)- a young lady dressed in a long red gown carrying a yellow triangular flag. She represents the arrival of Christianity.

3. Aetas – represents the animist Filipinos who have settled the islands prior to Christianisation by the Spanish.

4. Reyna Móra (Queen Moor) – represents the Filipinos who converted to Islam, which arrived in the Philippines two centuries before Christianity.

5. Reyna Fe (Queen Faith) – symbolises Faith, the first of the theological virtues. She carries a cross.

6. Reyna Esperanza (Queen Hope) – symbolises Hope, the second theological virtue. She carries an anchor.

7. Reyna Caridád (Queen Charity)- symbolises Charity, the third theological virtue. She carries a red-coloured heart.

8. Reyna Abogáda (Queen Lawyer) – the defender of the poor and the oppressed, she wears a black graduation cap, gown (toga), and carries a large book. She may also be a representation of Mary, Help (Advocate) of Christians.

9. Reyna Sentenciada (Queen Sentenced/Convicted) – has her hands bound by a rope, she stands for the Early Christians, especially the virgins, who were martyred for the faith. She is accompanied by two Roman soldiers.

10. Reyna Justicía (Queen Justice) – a personification of Mary as the “Mirror of Justice”, one of her titles in the Litany of Loreto. Her attributes are a weighing scale and a sword.

11. Reyna Judít (Queen Judith) – represents the biblical widow Judith of Bethulia who saved her city from the Assyrians by slaying the cruel Holofernes. She carries the head of her victim in one hand and a sword in the other. She is also known as Infanta Judith.

12. Reyna ng Sába (Queen of Sheba) – represents the Queen of Sheba, who visited King Solomon and was overwhelmed by his wisdom, power, and riches. She carries a jewelry box.

13. Reyna Éster – the Jewish queen of Persia who spared her people from death at the hands of Haman through her timely intervention with King Xerxes. She carries a scepter.

14. Samaritána (The Female Samaritan) – the woman with whom Christ spoke to at the well. She carries a jug on her shoulder.

15. Veronica – the woman who wiped the face of Jesus; bears a veil with three imprints of the face of Jesus.

16. Tres Marias (The Three Marys)- each Mary holds an attribute associated with her:

a. Mary of Magdala – a bottle of perfume;

b. The Virgin Mary – a handkerchief;

c. Mary, the mother of James – a bottle of oil.

17. Marian – each figure in this group alludes to a title of the Virgin Mary or to a figure associated with her.

a. “A-V-E–M-A-R-I-A” – eight “angels”: girls all wearing long white dresses and wings- each holding a letter from the word “AVE MARIA.”

b. Divina Pastora (Divine Shepherdess) – a shepherd’s staff.

c. Reyna de las Estrellas (Queen of the Stars) – a wand with a star.

d. Rosa Mystica (Mystical Rose)- a bouquet of roses.

e. Reyna dela Paz (Queen of Peace) – a dove.

f. Reyna de las Profetas (Queen of the Prophets)- an hourglass.

g. Reyna del Cielo (Queen of Heaven)- a flower; accompanied by two little “angels”.

h. Reyna de las Virgines (Queen of the Virgins) – a rosary (or a lily); also escorted by two little “angels”.

i. Reyna de las Flores (Queen of the Flowers) – a bouquet of flowers.

18. Reyna Eléna (Queen Helena) – the last member of the procession, she represents Helena of Constantinople who found the True Cross; this is alluded to by her attribute, a small cross or crucifix that she carries in her arms. This considerably prestigious role is usually awarded to the most beautiful girl participating in the pageant. In some communities, the identity of the woman who will portray the Reyna Eléna is kept a secret until the day of the procession.

a. Constantíno – the escort of Reyna Eléna; traditionally a young boy representing the Emperor Constantine.

The procession is accompanied by the steady beat of the rondalla, playing and singing the Hail Mary (“Dios Te Salve”). The devotees walking with the procession hold lighted candles in their hands and sing the prayer as they go along.

Millions of local and foreign tourists have since marveled at Kennon’s alternating steep rises, dips, and sharp turns, splendid waterfalls and lush vegetation. After almost 100 years of constant use, natural wear and tear aggravated by earthquakes and strong typhoons, some sections of Kennon Road became hazardous.

Kennon Road was built to connect Kafagway, later on chartered as Baguio City, to the lowlands. According to Filipino architect, author and actor — and Baguio native — Ernesto Zarate, his research shows that the Americans started building simultaneously from the top (which is Baguio City) and from the base (in La Union), and found that the two roads would not meet, necessitating a winding road through Bued River Canyon, affectionately referred to as the “Zigzag.”

Kennon Road is about 30 kilometers in length and is divided into ‘Camps,’ signifying the establishment of mining camps by the Americans along the way up to Baguio City, which was originally both a mining town and a recreational facility.

The construction of the road commenced in 1903 by cutting across the mountains of Benguet with the combined efforts of Filipinos, Americans, Filipino-Chinese and Japanese nationals, and was considered one of the most difficult and expensive civil engineering projects of its day, with expenditures by the newly established colonial government in excess of $2.7 million. The steepest portion of the road between Camp 6 and Camp 7 in Baguio City is commonly known as “Zig-zag Road” because of the numerous switchbacks required. Design of the road switchbacks along that section of the road are similar in construction to the agricultural rice terraces found locally in Benguet and the other mountain provinces of the Cordillera Administrative Region. More than 2,300 foreign and local workers worked on the road. Aside from Filipino engineers and construction workers and U.S. Army Engineers headed by Col. Lyman Kennon, foreigners from 36 countries were recruited to work on the road, but most of them were Japanese. About 1,500 Japanese contract workers persevered in the difficult road project. Hundreds of workers died from malaria while more plunged to their deaths while building the road. Some of the foreign road workers remained in Baguio to live permanently after the road was completed.

The Moriones is an annual festival held on Holy Week on the island of Marinduque, Philippines. The “Moriones” are men and women in costumes and masks replicating the garb of biblical Roman soldiers as interpreted by local folks. The Moriones or Moryonan tradition has inspired the creation of other festivals in the Philippines where cultural practices or folk history is turned into street festivals. The festival is characterized by colorful Roman costumes, painted masks and helmets, and brightly-colored tunics. The towns of Boac, Gasan, Santa Cruz, Buenavista and Mogpog in the island of Marinduque become one gigantic stage. The observances form part of the Lenten celebrations of Marinduque. The various towns also hold the unique tradition of the pabasa or the recitation of Christ’s passion in verse.

The observances form part of the Lenten celebrations of Marinduque. The various towns also hold the unique tradition of the pabasa or the recitation of Christ’s passion in verse. The Via Crucis is also reenacted and flagellants, known as antipos, impose suffering upon themselves as a form of atonement. After three o’clock on Good Friday afternoon, the Santo Sepulcro is observed, whereby old women exchange verses based on the Bible as they stand in wake of the dead Christ.

During the Lanzones Festival, people, houses, street poles among many other things and places are decorated with the Lanzones Fruit and Lanzones Leaves to signify abundance. Locals dance with happiness commemorating the legend of a beautiful, young maiden who changed the taste of the fruit from bitter to sweet. Street dancing highlighting the culture, tradition and the fruit of Camiguin invites domestic and foreign tourist alike to watch the scenic grand parade of the golden fruit during the Lanzones Festival. Parties, cultural shows, beauty pageant or coronation of Mutya sa Buahanan and trade fair that features local handicraft and products are among the other activities featured during this time of the year in Camiguin. If you have free time during the 3rd week of October, take a chance to visit and celebrate the Lanzones Festival in Camiguin.

The name of Camiguin is a synonym for Lanzones. Lanzones are small yellow/brown fruits with a taste of lychees and calamansi. Camiguin’s lanzones are the sweetest lanzones you can find in the Philippines.

Held every year on the 15th of May, the San Isidro Pahiyas Festival, has become one of the most popular must see fiestas in the Philippines. Tourists and locals alike flock to Quezon province to witness this spectacular event.

The Pahiyas Festival started as a gift-giving ritual by the natives of Lucban to the Franciscan missionaries who were responsible for bringing Catholicism to Quezon in 1583. When Fr. Juan de Placencia took over as the town’s first church administrator, he continued the practice of offering the years harvest to the Spanish friars as thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest. The ritual was carried on by the next parish priest, Fr. Diego de Oropesa, until it became a tradition for the Lucbanins.

In 1595, the town’s first parish priest, Fr. Miguel de Talavera who was instrumental in the construction of a wooden church in Barrio Kulapi had the farmers bring all their harvests to the church for blessing. The farmers believed that this rite was necessary because they were convinced that failure to observe it could mean drought, famine, and bad luck for the farmers in Lucban.

As the farmers were showered with more blessings and the harvests increased, the wooden church became a place where the annual pahiyas. was held. Later on to keep the tradition alive the townsfolk agreed to display their harvest in front of their homes where the parish priest would come to bless the harvest, to keep the solemnity of the festival, a procession of the image of San Isidro Labrador in whose honor the festival is held, was added to the celebration. The houses along the procession route are the best dressed, decked with the choices fruits and vegetables.

The term Masskara is created from two words: mass, meaning crowd, and the Spanish word cara, for face; thus the double meaning for “mask” and “many faces”. It was coined by Ely Santiago, a painter, cartoonist, and cultural artist, who devoted show in his art works the many faces of Negrenses overwhelmed with various crises.

The festival first began in 1980 during a period of crisis. The province relied on sugar cane as its primary agricultural crop, and the price of sugar was at an all-time low due to the introduction of sugar substitutes like high fructose corn syrup in the United States.[1] It was also a time of tragedy; on April 22 of that year, the inter-island vessel Don Juan carrying many Negrenses, including those belonging to prominent families in Bacolod City, collided with the tanker Tacloban City and sank. An estimated 700 lives were lost in the tragedy.

In the midst of these tragic events, the city’s artists, local government and civic groups decided to hold a festival of smiles, because the city at that time was also known as the City of Smiles. They reasoned that a festival was also a good opportunity to pull the residents out of the pervasive gloomy atmosphere. The initial festival was therefore, a declaration by the people of the city that no matter how tough and bad the times were, Bacolod City is going to pull through, survive, and in the end, triumph.

The festival features a street dance competition where people from all walks of life troop to the streets to see colorfully-masked dancers gyrating to the rhythm of Latin musical beats in a display of mastery, gaiety, coordination and stamina. Major activities include the MassKara Queen beauty pageant, carnivals, drum and bugle corps competitions, food festivals, sports events, musical concerts, agriculture-trade fairs, garden shows, and other special events organized ad-hoc every year.

During this festival every October, the city’s public plaza is brought alive into a huge beer garden. There is also Masskara Street-dancing contests highlighting the whole festival. Masskara Festival was intended as an encouragement to all to fight back and to keep smiling despite the sugar problems, and highlighted that hope still existed. Since then, the smiling masks have become the city’s symbol, thus earning its tag as the “City of Smile.” This annual festival, which has become one of Philippines best known tourist attraction, has been earning raves both from local and foreign tourists. Masskara Festival has also been judged the most beautiful and colorful festival among the various contingents from other countries.

In 2001, a research on Señor Santiago in Spain made by Mr. Thaddeus T. Hamoy of the Department of Foreign Affairs and with the advent of the internet, the historical inaccuracy and confusion regarding the Battles of Convadonga and Clavijo was brought to the attention of the Dapitanons. Since then the Kinabayo tableau or pageant has been expanded to the said two battles. The Battle of Covadonga, with the apparition of the Blessed Mother to Dom Pelayo with angels rolling down boulders of rocks and stones upon the Muslims and the Battle of Clavijo led by King Ramiro with the apparition of Señor Santiago.

The root word is dagyang. In Ilonggo, it means to “make happy”. Dinagyang is the present progressive word of the Ilonggo word, meaning making merry or merry-making. A religious and cultural activity, it is a celebration of Ilonggos whose bodies are painted with black in effect to imitate the black, small and slender Negritos who are the aborigines of Panay. The warriors are dressed in fashionable and colorful Aeta costumes and dance artistically and rhythmically with complicated formations along with the loud thrashing and sound of drums.

History tells that it started when a replica of the image of Señor Sto. Niño was brought to the San Jose Parish Church in Iloilo from Cebu. The people of Iloilo honored the coming of the image and then became devotees. Until they made the day of the Image’s arrival as his feast day which falls on the 4th Sunday of January. Since 1968, it was already considered a yearly celebration, culminated by a nine-day Novena, an Ati-ati contest and a fluvial procession on the last day

In 1977, the Marcos government ordered the various regions of the Philippines to come up with festivals or celebrations that could boost tourism and development. The City of Iloilo readily identified the Iloilo Ati-atihan as its project. At the same time the local parish could no longer handle the growing challenges of the festival.

The Dinagyang is divided into three Major events:
1. Ati-Ati Street Dancing
2. Kasadyahan Street Dancing
3. Miss Dinagyang

As more and more tribes from the barangays, schools and nearby towns and provinces participate, the contest became more competitive in terms of costumes, choreography and sounds. The tribes compete for the following Special Awards: Best in Discipline, Best in Costume, Best in Performance, Best in Music and Best in Choreography. These are aside from the major awards for the champion, first runner-up, second runner-up, third runner-up and fourth runner-up. Participating tribes learn to design artistically and with originality in making use of Ilonggo native materials like dried anahaw leaves, buri or coconut palm leaves and husks and other barks of Philippine trees. Choreography was studied and practices were kept secret. Sounds were seen as an authentic medium that keeps the tribes going in uniform.

They also include a brief dramatization of how Christianity was brought to Panay and the arrival of the 10 Bornean Datus telling about the exchange of the Aetas of their land for the Borneans’ Golden Salakot (native hat) and a long pearl necklace which is also parallel with the Kasadyahan celebration. During the celebration, people participate with the Kasadyahan. Some dressed in Aeta costumes, some paint their faces with black paint, some put on colored artificial tattoos and wear other Aeta ornaments. At night, there is public dancing on selected areas.

The Sinulog is the most colorful festivals in the Philippines with a very rich history, an annual festival held on the third Sunday of January in Cebu City, Philippines. The festival honors the vision of the child Jesus, known as the Santo Niño (Holy Child),who used to be the patron Saint of the City of Cebu (since in the Catholic faith Jesus is not a saint, but God). It is a dance ritual that commemorates the Cebuano people’s pagan origin, and their acceptance of Roman Catholicism.

The festival features a street parade with participants in bright coloured costumes dancing to the rhythm of drums, trumpets and native gongs. Smaller versions of the festival are held in various parts of the province, also to celebrate and honor the Santo Niño. There is also a “Sinulog sa Kabataan” performed by the youths of Cebu a week before the parade. Recently, the festival has been promoted as a tourist attraction, with a contest featuring contingents from various parts of the country. The Sinulog Contest is usually held in the Cebu City Sports Complex.

The word Sinulog comes from the Cebuano adverb sulog which is “like water current movement,” or “gracefull dance” which describes the forward-backward movement of the Sinulog dance. The dance consists of two steps forward and one step backward, done to the sound of drums.

The Sinulog dance steps were believed to originate from Rajah Humabon’s adviser, Baladhay. It was during Humabon’s grief when Baladhay was driven sick. He then ordered his native tribe to bring Baladhay into a room where the Santo Niño was enthroned, along with the other pagan gods of the native Cebuanos. After a few days passed, surprisingly, Baldhay was heard shouting and was found dancing with outmost alertness. Baladhay was questioned as to whether why was he awake and was shouting. Baladhay explained that he found a small child trying to tickle him with the midrib of the coconut, pointing to the image of the Santo Niño, on top of him and trying to wake him up. He, at great astonishment, scared the child away by shouting. The little child got up and started making fun of Baladhay. In turn, Baladhay danced with the little child, explaining why he was dancing the movements of the river. Up to this day, the two-steps forward, and the one-step backward movement dance is still used by the Santo Niño devotees believing that it was the Santo Niño’s choice to have Baladhay dance.

The name Ati-Atihan means “make-believe Atis”. It’s nickname, “The Filipino Mardis Gras”. It has been known as the wildest among Philippine fiestas. The Ati-Atihan is a festival in honour of the Santo Niño (Infant Jesus). During the last three days of this week-long festival (fiesta), a parade is characteristic. A colourful happening with celebrants who paint their faces in many different ways and who are dressed in the most outstanding costumes. Held annually in January, concluding on the third Sunday, in the island and town of Kalibo, Aklan, Panay Island, Philippines.

History
A 13th century (c.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.

The museum on the town square is worth a visit to learn more about the origin of Ati Atihan. In the thirteenth century, long before the Spaniards came to the Philippines, light-skinned settlers from the island of Borneo (Kalimantan) in Indonesia arrived on Panay. The local people of Panay, the Ati (negritos), a small and dark (black) kinky-haired people, sold them a small piece of land and permitted them to settle down in the lowlands. The Atis themselves, lived more upland in the mountains.

One time the Ati people was in need of food because of a bad harvest in their homelands because strong rains wiped out hillside crops. They came down to the lowlands of the Maraynon and asked them food. Every year since then, the Atis came down to the lowland people to ask for some food. The lowlanders who had a good harvest shared their blessings with the black, kinky-haired people. They danced and sang in gratefulness for the helping hand. A real friendship was born and the Maraynon started to paint their faces black in honor of the Atis and took part in the fiesta.

Aklan is the oldest province in the Philippines, structured in 1213 by settler from Borneo as the Minuro it Akean to include what is now Capiz. The festival is a festivity of the king of the “Aetas”, the original indigenous inhabitant’s agreement with the leader of the Malays that came by “banca” from Sabah’s sultanate in the 1200s, 800 years ago. Aklan’s capital presently, Kalibo but has changed location several times throughout their history.