1.

Sinulog Festival

Cebu City (Third week/Sunday of January)

Sinulog Festival is annually celebrated for cultural and religious purposes. This
event is celebrated in other parts of the country where the local government
arranges the festival. The event will consist of a street party, dancing, and
performing locals in traditional costumes. The Catholic Santo Niño is the centre of
this celebration, but the Sinulog dance ritual also commemorates the Filipinos’
pagan past, along with their acceptance of Christianity.
-commemorates the Filipinos pagan past
-acceptance of Christianity
-celebrate the feast of Santo Nino

2. Ati-Atihan

Another celebration to honour the Santo Niño, Ati-Atihan is where people go to

the streets parading their traditional costumes and weapons, and painting their
bodies black. Participants march and dance in the town, matched with loud
drumbeats. This festival will definitely make you dance your heart out while
enjoying a true Filipino atmosphere.
-feast to honor Santo Nino
-to show appreciation to the Aetas
-shows how Filipinos adapt to foreign influences

3. Dinagyang Festival

Dinagyang Festival is one of the largest festivals in the country. It’s when Iloilo
takes the street festivals to the next level. The city converts all its streets into a
massive open-air festival and everyone is invited. Mouthwatering local dishes are
overflowing whilst there are bands playing in every alley you turn to. Every
barangay and school will come together and have an extravagant dance
competition.
-devotion to Santo Nino
-commemorate the Christianization of the Native

4. Panagbenga Festival

One of longest festivals in the Philippines, Panagbenga is celebrated throughout

the month of February. This month highlights the season of blooming flowers, at
the same time, this is also to commemorate our rise from the disastrous 1990
earthquake in Luzon. Marvellous floats, designed with various types of flowers,
conquer the streets of Baguio City. Tourists can expect street dancing by dancers
wearing flower-inspired costumes. Expect it to be even colder in Baguio when you
visit as this festival is celebrated in February.
-serves as a sign that the most beautiful flowers of Dangwa comes from this
country

5. Moriones Festival

This is a festival that lasts for a week in Marinduque. Moriones is the celebration
of the life of St. Longinus whose eye was healed by the blood of Christ. Since most
Filipinos don’t work during the Holy Week and this event follows the schedule of
the Holy Week, a lot of locals stay in Marinduque to celebrate the festival. Morion
refers to the helmet of the people dressed as Roman soldiers, while Moriones
refers to the people who dress as these Roman soldiers. These costumed
Moriones roam the streets for seven days, scaring children and making noise to
reenact the search for Longinus, the centurion who pierced Jesus on the cross
with a spear.
-re-enacts the story of Saint Longinus
-to depict the Roman Soldiers within the story of the Passion of Christ

6. Pahiyas Festival

May 15 is when the locals of Lucban decorate their houses extravagantly with
vibrant and lively colours. Vegetables are hung as decorations because this
festival celebrates the season of harvesting. People are allowed to bring their own
basket and pick fresh vegetables from the walls, with no charge – happy fiesta
and shopping at the same time!
-to celebrate San Isidro Labrador, Patron saint of farmers

7. Pintados-Kasadayan Festival

Pintados-Kasadayan Festival is another religious celebration in the name of the

Santo Niño held in Tacloban City. It showcases the rich culture and colourful
history of the province of Leyte. The dancers paint their faces and bodies with
vibrant colours of blue and green to depict Leyte’s ancestral people. Some
dancers are also painted with designs that look like armour to represent the
warriors that lived in Leyte long ago.

The folk dances they perform portray the many traditions people of Leyte
practised before the Spanish era. Among these is the worship of idols, indigenous
music, and epic stories, to name a few. The term, pintados, is derived from what
the tattoed native warriors of Leyte were once called, while kasadayan means
merriment in the Visayan tongue.
-to showcase the tattooed inhabitants of Samar and Leyte called Pintados
-highlight of the festival is body paint where the patterns resemble armors to
represent past warriors

8. Sirong Festival

Sirong Festival is another cultural and religious celebration. Various towns claim
that it originated in their municipalities in Surigao del Sur. Most of these towns
were founded during the pre-Spanish occupation and were attacked by the
Moros. Sirong Festival features a war dance between the Muslims and the
Christians. It marks the Christianisation of the early Cantilangnons. Whoever wins
the best dance in the festival brings home a cash prize.
-known to be a war dance between Muslims and Christians
9. Masskara Festival

A festival that is celebrated from the city of smiles – Bacolod City. Mass (crowd)
kara (face) Festival is filled with people wearing colourful smiling masks designed
with feathers, flowers, and native beads. The festival allows tourists to enjoy 20
days of beer drinking, street dancing, and merrymaking. Every street is filled with
locals wearing their smiling masks and festive costumes while dancing around and
spreading the happy atmosphere throughout the city.

During the festival, locals are encouraged to forget the economic struggle brought
about by the dead season of the sugar harvest. They also see the festival as their
way of escapism and obscurantism. The sugar harvest is important to the people
of Bacolod since Negros Occidental, where Bacolod is found, is known as the
Sugar Bowl of the Philippines.
-it is a declaration of the people’s resolve to rise above adversity and triumph over
crisis, tragedy, and disaster.
-it is to throw away all the sadness and the grief that was popping in the air of
Bacolod City during the early 80’s

10. Giant Lantern Festival

San Fernando organises the biggest festival in the country. It features a

competition of giant lantern making, which is why it has been called the
“Christmas Capital of the Philippines”. This is also to celebrate the Christmas
season, where participants produce up to fifteen-foot diameter lanterns. It is a
rule that each lantern should be made out of locally available materials. These
lanterns are showcased in a parade in each barrio before the midnight mass on
Christmas Eve.

This list is not even half of the notable festivals in the Philippines. There are plenty
more to discover but the ones mentioned above should give you a great start.
Make sure to go on the right date and month so as not to miss any of these
awesome festivals.
-lanterns symbolize the Star of Bethlehem
-it was influenced by the Spanish, to have lantern processions in honor of Our
Lady of La Naval or the blessed Virgin Mary