Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
FESTIVALS & EVENTS
Ati-Atihan Festival, January
The Philippines' most famous and riotous festival is this
weeklong mardi gras in Kalibo on Panay.
Panagbenga Flower Festival, February
The streets in the northern mountain city of
Baguio come alive with song, dance and a grand floral parade with spectacular floats.
Crucifixion Ceremonies, Good Friday
The Easter crucifixion ceremony in San
Fernando (Pampanga), north of Manila, presents a more macabre tableau, with devotees
literally being nailed to wooden crosses.
Moriones Festival, Holy Week
Marinduque's colourful Moriones Festival is a weeklong
senakulo
(passion play) in which the streets are overrun by masked locals engaging in
mock sword fights and playing pranks on bystanders.
Rodeo Masbateño, May
CowboyupforMasbate'selectricweeklongrodeoinearlyMay
or late April, with bull-riding, lasso contests and other events that will have you clicking
your spurs.
Pahiyas sa Lucban, May
This fiesta takes place south of Manila, where houses are
decked out with colourful leaf-shaped rice wafers as decorations, which are later eaten.
MassKara, October
Mischievous masked men stir the masses into a dancing frenzy on
the streets of Bacolod, capital of Negros Occidental.
Todos los Santos, October
Familiesladenwithfoodgatheratthelocalcemeterytospend
a night remembering departed loved ones. A surprisingly festive occasion.
MA-CHO PAGODA
Temple
The Ma-Cho in San Fernando is one of the most striking Chinese temples in Luzon. A loud
collision of Taoism and Chinese Catholicism (think bright red imperial Chinese decor
mixed with the iconography of a Latin American church and you get the idea), the pagoda
sits atop a hill just north of San Fernando.
MESTIZO DISTRICT, VIGAN
District
Vigan's old town, the Mestizo District, is where you can wander lost in a historical daze
among ancestral homes and colonial-era architecture. The mansions here are simply beauti-
ful and architecturally unique, marrying two great aesthetic senses: Chinese and Spanish.
