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Since the Sinulog Festival is right around the corner, I decided to give you a brief article about the celebrations here in the Philippines. You can see the many cultures of the different people here in the Philippines and there are just to many to list them all, so I picked just some. I hope this will encourage everybody to join us here and have some fun!



Here in the Philippines, we call our celebrations 'FIESTAS'



We usually have a very big feast for the whole 'barangay' (native term for village) which usually includes 'lechon' (roasted pig) and our special 'kakanin' (delicacies).





SINULOG FESTIVAL

The Sinulog is an annual festival held on the third Sunday of January in Cebu City and Maasin City, Southern Leyte, Philippines. The festival commemorates the Filipino people's pagan origin, and their acceptance of Roman Catholicism. The festival is an adaptation of the ati-atihan festival in kalibo, aklan.

The main feature is 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.





PANAGBENGA FESTIVAL

Panagbenga is a month-long annual flower festival occurring in Baguio, the summer capital of the Philippines. The term is of Malayo-Polynesian origin, meaning "season of blooming". The festival, held during the month of 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 decorated with flowers. 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 Cordillera region.





MORIONES FESTIVAL

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.





BANGUS FESTIVAL

Bangus Festival is an annual festivity in Dagupan City, Pangasinan that kicks off every month of April. It celebrates the province's Bonuan bangus, which is renowned for its unique taste.





PAHIYAS FESTIVAL

Lucban celebrates the Pahiyas Festival every 15 May in honour of the patron saint of farmers, St Isidro Labrador. 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.





FLORES DE MAYO

Flores de Mayo is a Catholic festival held in the Philippines in the month of May. Lasting for a month, it is held in honor of the Virgin Mary. The Santacruzan refers to the pageant on the last day of Flores de Mayo, held in honour of Helena (known as Reyna Elena) and Constantine finding the True Cross in Jerusalem.





WATTAH! WATTAH! SAN JUAN FIESTA

San Juan Town Fiesta is the feast of St. John the Baptist, patron saint of San Juan City, and of many other communities throughout the Philippines, held every 24th of June. Children and grown-ups alike line up the streets and generously douse passersby or unsuspecting commuters and visitors with water, with the traditional 'basaan' or 'buhusan' (dousing of water)- supposedly to remind them of their baptism. They also enjoy engaging in water wars and other wet games using dippers, pails, hoses and even water pistols.





PARADE OF LECHON

Parade of Roast Pigs held at Balayan, Batangas, Philippines every 24th of June. Curly wigs, sunglasses, a bridal veil and a groom's formal tails: Filipino festival goers have given a new meaning to dressing up a crisp, golden-brown roast pigs to parade through the streets. Roast pig, or "lechon", is festival food for Filipinos, a dish that brings all the community together to celebrate the feast of St. John the Baptist with a parade of succulent roast pigs.



PINTADOS FESTIVAL

The Pintados Festival is a cultural-religious celebration in Tacloban based on the body-painting traditions of the ancient tattooed 'pintados' warriors.





TSINELAS FESTIVAL

To mark the anniversary of the town’s cityhood, Gapan City holds its annual Tsinelas or Slippers Festival, with street dancing, parade of floats decorated with regular to gigantic 7 ft. slippers the famous slippers bazaar. The festival is aimed at bolstering the new city’s claim as the North Slippers Capital.





PENAFRANCIA FIESTA FESTIVAL

Peñafrancia Fiesta Festival is an annual fluvial parade along the Naga River route carrying the image of the Virgin is the highlight of the Peñafrancia Fiesta Festival of Naga City. On the feast day the image travels back to her Basilica or shrine. This a week-long celebration, the first few days of the feast features a novena in honor of Our Lady of Peñafrancia and some other contests.





MASSKARA FESTIVAL

The MassKara Festival is a festival held each year in Bacolod, Philippines, every third weekend of October nearest October 19, the city's Charter Inauguration Anniversary. The word "MassKara" is a portmanteau, coined by the late artist Ely Santiago from mass (a multitude of people), and the Spanish word cara (face), thus forming MassKara (a multitude of faces). The word is also a pun on maskara (Filipino for "mask"), since a prominent feature of the festival are the masks worn by participants, which are always adorned with smiling faces.





HIGANTES FESTIVAL

Higantes Festival, also known as the Feast of San Clemente, is celebrated every November 23 in the town of Angono, Rizal. This is a major festival in honor of San Clemente, the patron saint of fishermen. His image is carried by male devotees during a procession accompanied by 'pahadores' (devotees dressed in colorful local costumes or fishermen's clothes, wearing wooden shoes and carrying boat paddles, fish nets, traps, etc.) and 'higantes' (paper-mâché giants measuring 10-12 feet in height and 4-5 feet in diameter).





News
1. Congress Elections are to be held on the 25th, for those who are interested, you can file your candidacies only until the 23rd.
2. eUSA just joined CoT as a trial member. Many eAmericans are not agreeing with this decision made by their government.
3. eArgentina left EDEN. Here is the article released by the EDEN HQ about it.
4. The bidding for the new Camps by our MoD started! Commanders, bid for your choice of camps for your Military Unit.
5. Staplerism, the soon-to-be National Religion of ePhilippines is still being discussed and finalized. You can help us in finalizing it by going here.



Sources

- Wikipedia/url]
- WikiPilipinas
- Google Images
- Philippine Deparment of Tourism



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