Ati-atihan Festival

ATI-ATIHAN FESTIVAL

A 13th century (c.1200 A.D.) event explains the origins of the festival. A group of 10 Malay chieftains called Datus, fleeing from the island of Borneo settled in the Philippines, and were granted settlement by the Ati people, the tribes of Panay Island. The Ati-Atihan was originally a pagan festival from this tribe practicing Animism, and their worshiping their anito god. Spanish missionaries gradually added a Christian meaning. Today, the Ati-Atihan is celebrated as a religious festival.

Ati-Atihan is celebrated every third weekend of January, the entire town center erupts in frenzied, non-choreographed dancing and shouting “Hala Bira! Puwera Pasma!” to the beats of snare drums, bass drums, trumpets, xylophones and a cacophony of other instruments seemingly playing from all the corners of this sleepy little boomtown of Kalibo.

Thus the Bornean settlers, in camaraderie with the Atis, daubed their faces with soot and black paint, and danced to the beat of the drums to celebrate the arrival in their new home. What began as a feast of friendship and reconciliation evolved into the most decadent, the most colorful and the wildest Philippine festival ever.