On a road trip 65 kilometers north of Negros Occidental , the sun began to shine along the way. I then remembered little Aimee saying ‘Mom we’re not going to have flood here tomorrow’ as she watched news on tv the night before.
Indeed this is a bright sunny day here in Cadiz City , oooohhh the smell of dried fish welcomes us. You should not miss to buy one when in this part of Negros Occidental.
It’s the 29th of January, and today they have a dance parade and showcase of seven festival dances in the province. We were so excited with Bashty, Cecile and Julie –on the job trainees in the office with good friend photographer RJ Baldonado. We took shots of each group, first was the Manlambus Festival of Escalante with Tourism Officer Vermont and Tinabuay Festival of Murcia with Stella and Mike, then we met Genevieve Lyn of Manapla for the Mana Pula Festival, and we also met the Sag-ahan Festival group of Toboso with Rob Kanke , along the main street of the city was a group of festival dancers with brown body paints and white designs, I just love the white painted hair and tattooed faces of this group, they had actually two groups of drum beaters with them and to my surprise no less than Himamaylan City Mayor ‘Tinto’ Bascon and City Tourism Officer Roselyn Toreta came to support the Himayaan Festival Dancers .
It really feels good to see our Mayors come and support the festivals of other cities. Bago City’s Babaylan festival also joined the parade with Mr. Clem del Castillo, when the dancers with body paints of skeletons, witches and ghosts, performed the dance of the dearly departed to the tune of the Tigkalalag Festival of Isabela,
which is actually celebrated every all souls day, children, young and old enjoyed --this was a treat for the people of Cadiz.
The Tukib Arts group painted faces and legs in whatever design you want for P30.00 each, just cant miss this part when Lamhitanay is part of the game.
Ms. Juanily Pedrosa together with her staff Nelia, Evelyn, Charito and Ernalie with the rest of the City Tourism Office gave us a warm welcome even to the extent of sharing their place for us to stay overnight with all the accommodation facilities booked.
We chanced upon a visit to the newest resort in town Little Jungle Resort, it’s a 4-hectare property with tall trees and about 15 open-cottages with facilities for barbecue and a clubhouse. Each cottage rental is priced @ P200-P500 depending on the size. Entrance fee for now is P50.00 to include use of swimming pool @ 3.75 – 6.5 feet deep. This is located one kilometer away from Faraon Institute located at the border for Sagay and Cadiz.
Dinner followed at the residence of Negros Occidental’s Best City Tourism Officer-Juanily Pedrosa with the Cadiz Tourism staff. After a sumptuous meal, we walked along the streets of the city and went to the City Hall area.
The main street fronting the public plaza and the city hall was closed in the evening as a huge balloon of globe communications was placed in the middle of the street, there were kiosk on the side street and tables and chairs along the road for revelers to have fun , sing and drink beer and have some barbecue or peanuts, this was the night for Rock Steady band and Sagay City’s Kahoneros who entertained the crowd of no less than 1,000 standing and jamming along’ as friend Junine one of the lead vocalist performed his rendition of I gotta feeling…hoooh hoooh…and Hot and Cold ‘co’z you’re hot and you’re cold – you’re yes and you’re no- you’re in and you’re out, you’re up and you’re down’… sure this reminded me of our Wow Philippines days in Intramuros when Junine was our contestant for the singing competition per province…he sure bagged the first prize and went home with a magic sing microphone. Second Day…
The day is cool, our first stop is Terrace Garden with fellow judges Ver Pacete, Kenneth Benignos , Hernane Cabahaga of NONESCOST and Ms Jago of the College of Arts and Science, USLS with friends, breakfast was a blend of mangoes with danggit or corned beef, naturally , dried fish would be our first choice being in the City that produces dried fish in the province.
We came for the 37th Dinagsa Ati-Atihan Festival.
Dinagsa refers to the Hiligaynon word ‘dagsa’ which means to come in groups, it is a phenomenon that happened May 5, 1967 when whales were stranded in its shores each measuring forty feet long and eight feet in height followed by ten more whales five days after, it’s called whale stranding which may be caused by pods of whales refusing to abandon one sick or injured whale and follow them in shallow water- studies shows that pilot and sperm whales are most likely to get stranded than orcas .AtiAtihan – also refers to dark brown skinned natives (ATI) dancing in celebration of the feast of Sto. Nino. That’s how the Dinagsa AtiAtihan was named.
As a member of the Board of Judges in this year’s Ati-Atihan competition for the Dinagsa Festival we were stationed at the last performing area at the plaza fronting the Sto. Nino Church. After the mass, Mayor Patrick Escalante held on to the statue of Sr. Sto Nino on board a hammer driven by Vice Mayor Mirhan as the motorcade went around the city, signifying the start of the Ati-Atihan Dance Festival.
There were eight Ati-Atihan warriors with more than 50 performers. Most improved guest performer was Tribu ni Bading---the term bading reminds us of the nickname of former Mayor Salvador Escalante, and the other referring to gays and recognizing their being part of the community without any discrimination. There were about 40 gay warriors with bodies painted, wearing long blond wigs each with crowns and high heels gracefully dancing with two older gays spitting fire to the amusement of the audience.
All warriors danced to the beat of the drums wearing costumes dominantly made of indigenous materials, the choreography of the dance clearly showed the presence of Antonio Cabahug who brought the Sto. Nino to Cadiz, a dance drama on the villagers rejection of Christianity , and the scene when pirates invaded Cadiz, the apparition of Sto. Nino at the shoreline preventing pirates to move forward, showing the Sto. Nino as savior and next scene- natives embraces Christianity followed by the merry making as a form of celebration.
The Dinagsa AtiAtihan was judged based on performance, costume, choreography and props, sound which included timing , rhythm, vibration and the groups discipline was important as well. Hitalon Tribe was overall champion, and was also awarded as the Best Performing Group and Best in Sounds followed by Bulawanon Tribe who also got the award for Best Costume, Discipline and Choreography with Bobucad Tribe as third place.
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| we belong |
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| Hitalon Warrior |
Merry making went on until night time and Lamhitanay was what made the whole Cadiz more festive. Water based paints in containers like the ones used for Mc Donalds or Jollibee for gravy were sold at P5.00 each and were used to paint revelers faces. We realized that wearing white shirts would be more fun as you see hand prints all over their shirts, even our van and cars were part of the ‘Lamhitanay’ .
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| and this van saved as from lamhitanay heheheeh |
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| with Cadiz Tourism Staff |
Hats off to the organizers and the People of Cadiz!
Viva Senor Sto. Nino de Cadiz!
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