Holidays and Fiestas

New Year's Day.  The celebration starts on New Year's eve with fireworks and the media noche (midnight snack).  Throughout the night until early morning, there is a constant explosion of
firecrackers and rockets from people's homes.  New Year's Day is greeted by noise-banging on pots and pans to keep the bad spirits away.  There are many folk beliefs associated with New Years such as opening all doors and windows during the first day of the New Year to bring good luck.

Ati-Atihan Festival.  It starts on the second Sunday of January.  This is a week-long festival, in honor of the Christ child.  It is the country's most colorful celebration, similar to the Mardi Gras of New
Orleans.  People in procession wear multi-colored paper mache masks and dress in Roman style
costumes.  Others paint their faces and bodies with soot or black color.  Throwing caution to the wind, participants representing high and low position shout, sing, and dance in the streets to the tune of orchestras, school bands, and combos.  Festivities end on a Sunday with a religious torch procession.

Flores de Mayo.  It is a flower festival held in May.  Young girls, dressed in formal, white gowns,
present floral offerings to the Virgin Mary.  Highlights of the festival is the religious procession by singing and dancing to string band music in the churchyard.

Lent and Holy Week.  Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, is a somber season.  Palm
Sunday starts Holy Week.  Filipinos weave palm fronds into elaborate designs.  They take them to church to wave as a remembrance of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  After mass, the priest blesses the palms.  People hang the palms above their doors in the belief they will be safe.  On Holy Monday and Holy Thursday, religious processions are held.  Men carry scenes recalling the events of Pasion  (the life and death of Christ).  Sometimes, people act out the story.  On Good Friday,
penitents dressed in brown robes and crowns of leaves walk barefoot through the streets, dragging heavy wooden crosses on their shoulders.  In some areas, people called flagellantes strip to the waist and beat their backs with ropes until they are raw.  In other places, people reenact Christ's crucifixion by suspending themselves from standing crosses.  On Easter, there is a reenactment of the legend of the Roman centurion, Longinus, his eyesight restored by a drop Christ's blood.

All Saint's Day.  Filipinos remember their dead, clean the graves, and decorate them with flowers.  While the purpose is somber, the effect is a picnic, full of merrymaking and laughter.  Everyone goes to the cemetery, and some even stay overnight. 

Christmas.  Filipinos celebrate the longest Christmas season in the world.  It starts from October through January.  Midnight mass and family gatherings on Christmas are the center of the holiday.  The Feast of the Three Kings on January 6 ends the season.  People attend the misa de gallo (morning mass) for nine days prior to Christmas.  People go from house to house caroling in return for gifts of food and money.  Houses are decorated with parol (star-shaped lanterns) made of bamboo sticks covered with colored paper.