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History of Ati-Atihan

The Ati-Atihan festival is a week-long celebration held annually in January in Kalibo, Aklan, Philippines. It is dedicated to celebrating the Feast of Santo Niño or the Holy Infant Jesus. Participants paint their faces with black soot and wear colorful costumes as they dance through the streets over the last three days of the festival. The festival has religious origins but has evolved to include social activities, indigenous drama, and tourism. It stretches over several days and includes masses, dances, processions, competitions between tribal groups, and ends with a torchlight procession honoring Santo Niño.

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306 views1 page

History of Ati-Atihan

The Ati-Atihan festival is a week-long celebration held annually in January in Kalibo, Aklan, Philippines. It is dedicated to celebrating the Feast of Santo Niño or the Holy Infant Jesus. Participants paint their faces with black soot and wear colorful costumes as they dance through the streets over the last three days of the festival. The festival has religious origins but has evolved to include social activities, indigenous drama, and tourism. It stretches over several days and includes masses, dances, processions, competitions between tribal groups, and ends with a torchlight procession honoring Santo Niño.

Uploaded by

Roy Bacani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Atiatihan: History

A week long festival in the Province of Aklan is the highlight of events in the province
during the month of January, it is known throughout the world as the Kalibo Ati-Atihan Festival
and to give you a glimpse of the history and origin, this traditional fiesta is dedicated to the
celebration of the Feast of the Santo Niño or the Holy Infant Jesus.

The Ati-Atihan, held every third sunday of January in the town of Kalibo in the province
of Aklan on the island of Panay, is the wildest among Philippine fiestas. Celebrants paint their
faces with black soot and wear bright, outlandish costumes as they dance in revelry during the
last three days of this two week-long festival. The Ati-Atihan, a feast in honor of the Santo Niño,
is celebrated on the second Sunday after Epiphany.

Catholics observe this special day with processions, parades, dancing, and merrymaking.
The Santo Niño has long been the favorite of Filipinos and devotion to it has been intense ever
since an image was first presented to Juana, Queen of Cebu, in 1521. Although the Ati-Atihan
seems to show only revelry, a closer look shows that it has historic origins.

The famous ati-atihan festival however, having become a hodge-podge of Catholic ritual,
social activity, indigenous drama, and a tourist attraction, the celebration now stretches over
several days. Days before the festival itself, the people attend novena masses for the Holy Child
or Santo Niño and benefit dances sponsored by civic organizations.

The formal opening mass emphasizes the festival’s religious intent. The start of the
revelry is signaled by rhythmic, insistent, intoxicating drumbeats, as the streets explode with the
tumult of dancing people.

The second day begins at dawn with a rosary procession, which ends with a community
mass. The merrymaking is then resumed. The highlight of the festival occurs on the last day,
when groups representing different tribes compete.

Costumes, including the headdress, are made of abaca fibers, shells, feathers, bamboo,
plant leaves, cogon, sugar cane flowers, beads, trinkets and an assortment of pieces of glass,
metals and plastics. The day ends with a procession of parishioners carrying bamboo torches and
different images of the Santo Niño. The contest winners are announced at a masquerade ball that
officially ends the festival.

Source: http://www.ati-atihan.net/

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