PHILIPPINES

VISAYAS
FESTIVALS

Presented by: Group 3

VISAYAS The Visayas (also known as the Visayan
group of islands) is one of the three island
groups making up the Philippine
Archipelago. Its largest islands are Samar,
Negros, Panay, Leyte, Cebu, and Bohol.
What makes Visayas unique?
Visayas is known for its cultural richness in song traditions
and great musicality. The Visayas song traditions define its
people and make them all distinct from other ethno-linguistic
groups in the Philippines believing that among all the arts,
music has an extreme emotional power.
 THE RUINS
Talisay, Negros Occidental, Philippines

Chocolate Hills
Bohol Province, Philippines
 1. Sinulog Festival
(Every Third Week of January)
The word "Sinulog” means
“graceful dance”, wherein it all
started in 1980 with a simple
dance that represents the “sulog”
(or current) of a river in Cebu.
With the celebration's evolution,
the Sinulog Festival has become a
month long tradition in Cebu.
The Sinulog Festival is widely believed that the Sinulog Festival originated
when the then-pagan queen of Sugbu (Cebu), Queen Juana, consort of
Rajah Humabon, received the holy image of the child Jesus from the
Spanish missionaries led by Magellan in 1521.
 1. Sinulog Festival
(Every Third Week of January)
The festival is done by a dance ritual, in which it tells the story of the
Filipino people's pagan past and their acceptance of Christianity.

The festival now, not only consists

of costumes and dances, but also
contests, such as art exhibits,
beauty pageants, photo contests,
and singing and dancing contests.
Participants may also join the
festival's activities, such as
concerts, cultural shows, fireworks
display, fun runs, and street fairs.
 2. TULTUGAN FESTIVAL
(DECEMBER 26TH)
Tultugan Festival held in Maasin (Iloilo City)
every December 26th is the main tourist
attraction of the municipality. It gives tribute
to Panay's rich culture. The festival features
a competition between tribes wearing
costumes with bamboo as dominant material
and dancing to the beat of bamboo musical
instruments.
Tultugan is an indigenous Ilonggo bamboo drum used centuries ago by the
natives of Panay to communicate with each other. The drum was used by the
natives to send messages of distress to the community by making fast beats. Upon
hearing, the beats neighbors will then follow the pattern.
3. MASSKARA FESTIVAL
(4TH SUNDAY OF OCTOBER)
The MassKara Festival is an annual festival
with highlights held every 4th Sunday of
October in Bacolod, Philippines. The most
recent festival was held last October 30,
2021. The festival sites include the Bacolod
Public Plaza, the Lacson Tourism Strip and
the Bacolod City Government Center.

Starting in 1980, the MassKara Festival was born out of a crisis

and tragedy when the prices of sugar, the primary livelihood
source, were at an all-time low. Besides this, a tragic ferry
incident happened this year, and the MassKara Festival w
3. MASSKARA FESTIVAL
(4TH SUNDAY OF OCTOBER)
As the most awaited festival event, this night parade
features LED-lit dancers, bands, and floats. Other activities
include the MassKara Festival Queen beauty pageant, food
festivals, and float parade.
Major activities include the MassKara
Queen beauty pageant, carnivals, drum,
bugle corps competitions, food festivals,
sports events, musical concerts,
agriculture-trade fairs, garden shows,
and other special events organized every
year.
Ati-atihan Festival
Third Sunday of January
is a Philippine festival held annually in January
in honor of the Santo Niño (Holy Child or Infant
Jesus) in several towns of the Province of Aklan,
Panay Island.

The biggest celebration is held during the third

Sunday of January in the town of Kalibo, the
province's capital.

The name Ati-Atihan means "to imitate the

Ati people".
Ati-atihan Festival
Third Sunday of January
The festival consists of religious
processions and street-parades,
showcasing themed floats, dancing groups
wearing colorful costumes, marching bands,
and people sporting face and body paints.

The street parade is known as Sadsad,

which is also what the locals call their way
of dancing where the foot is momentarily
dragged along the ground in tune to the
beat played by the marching bands.
Dinagyang Festival
Fourth Sunday of January

is a religious and cultural festival in Iloilo

City, Philippines, held annually on the 4th
Sunday of January, or right after the Sinulog
in Cebu and the Ati-Atihan Festival in Kalibo,
Aklan.
It is one of the biggest festivals in the
Philippines.
Dinagyang Festival
Fourth Sunday of January

The main part of the festival, which is the

Ati Tribe competition, consists of a number of
"warrior" dancers (who hold a shield in one
hand and a spear in another) in a tribe (locally
called "tribu") dancing in a choreographed
formation and patterns as well as chanting to
the sound of loud drum beats and improvised
percussion instruments innovated by the
respective tribes.
Pintados -Kasadyaan
Festival
JUNE 29
The Pintados Festival is a cultural-religous
celebration in Tacloban based on the body-
painting traditions of the ancient tattooed
"pintados" warriors.
In 1986, the Pintados Foundation, Inc. was
formed by the people of Tacloban to organize
this festival in honor of Sr. Santo Niño.
Years later, it was merged with the
Kasadyaan Festival which is always held on
June 29.
Pintados -Kasadyaan
Festival
JUNE 29 Pintados," or "painted people," is a term that
refers to the native Filipinos who Spanish
colonizers encountered in the 16th century.
Centuries of Spanish occupation affected
Filipino culture and much of the history
surrounding tribal tattoos is concentrated on the
Visayan (including the people of Tacloban) and
Igorot peoples Due to their relative isolation,
ethnic groups such as the Ifugao have resisted
Spanish cooptation more so than others in the
Philippines.
Pintados--Kasadyaan
Festival
JUNE 29

The Pintados-Kasadyaan festival includes

multiple events throughout the celebration.
These events are called the Festival of festivals
of Leyte, the Ritual Dance Presentation of
Pintados Festival, and the “Pagrayhay” during
the Grand Parade
Sandugo Festival
Every July
is a historical event that takes place yearly in the
island of Bohol. Otherwise known as the Bohol
Sandugo Celebration or the Blood Compact
Commemoration, this festival commemorates the
treaty of friendship of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi and
Datu Sikatuna; two people of different race and
creed.

The Blood Compact or Sandugo occurred on March

16, 1565 when Legaspi and Sikatuna entered into a
native ritual of both shedding blood (“dugo” in the
Visayan dialect) into a cup and then drinking the
contents thereof.
Sandugo Festival
Every July
The main highlights of the Sandugo Festival are the
street parade followed by a street dancing
competition and then the re-enactment of the Blood
Compact.

Well decorated floats grace the parade and one of

them usually carries the winners of the Miss Bohol
Sandugo Pageant.

Each of the street dancing participants has

choreographed dance patterns executed with the
accompaniment of xylophones, drums, and trumpets.
Costumes are bright and colourful including gadgets
and paraphernalia such as banners and flags.
Sakay-sakay Festival
3rd Sunday of January
The celebration traces its origin to the
Sinulog Festival commemorating the
arrival of the Holy Child’s image to the
Philippines when it was gifted by
Ferdinand Magellan to Queen Juana,
the wife of Rajah Humabon, in 1521.

As the celebration of the feast of the

Santo Niño spread across the Visayas
region, Maasin City held their own
version of “sinulog” through the Sakay-
Sakay Festival.
Sakay-sakay Festival
3rd Sunday of January
The Sakay-Sakay Festival now highlights a
fluvial parade starting at the Maasin City
port, where bancas and pump boats, garbed
with colorful banners, flaglets and various
images of the Santo Niño, compete against
each other for the best decoration. Aboard
these boats, dancers sway to drumbeats
while carrying small images of the Holy Child.

Other activities include the coastal

decoration, face painting, and the street
dancing competition highlighting an elegantly
garbed ‘festival queen’ carrying the image of
the Santo Niño during the performance.
Buglasan Festival
In the Middle of October
Buglasan Festival, also known as “The
Festival of Festivals”, is one of the most
awaited festivals in Negros Oriental. It is
celebrated in Dumaguete City, the capitol of
the province in the middle of October.

In some old records the map of Negros

was drawn by a man named Diego Lope
Provedano way back in 1572 showing an
island named Buglas Insulis. In order to
honor Negros Oriental and what lie is in it,
the celebration of Buglasan Festival was
born.
Buglasan Festival
In the Middle of October
This week-long festival is composes of
different competitions starting from show
down competition, street dance
competition to fireworks display
competition. Events such as nightly
cultural shows, food festival, trade fairs are
also enjoyed by people during the
Buglasan Festival.
Thank you
for listening!