Beloved Child

BY AC DIMATATAC and BERNARD TESTA

It was a festive Sunday for most as many people celebrated festivals associated with the Santo Niño, or the child Jesus, in Metro Manila, Cebu and in Kalibo, Ati-Atihan, where what’s described by some as the mother of all Philippine festivals, is held.

Mainly, the Ati-Atihan consists of a tribal dancing parade and ethnic music, accompanied by indigenous costumes and weapons.

Observed every third Sunday of January, it has people smearing themselves with charcoal or any black substance to look like Aetas.

The name Ati-Atihan means "to be like Aetas" or "make believe ati's". It is estimated to begun in the 13th century, when a group of Malay chieftains or "datus" fled from Borneo and were accepted by the Ati's, the early settlers in Panay Island.

This festival celebrates the sealing of a peaceful pact between two different races and cultures. It became a religious feast in 1750, when a companion priest of Fray Andres Urdaneta and explorer Miguel Lopez de Legaspi baptized, in a single day, 1,000 inhabitants of the town and surrounding settlements in the place. Since then its been celebrated with masses and novenas to their Patron Saint Sto. Niño.

As time went on, people added various other features to the festival, including the Ati-Atihan dance and the use of creative masks instead of charcoal.

People from other provinces and even Manila visit Kalibo just to participate in the lively street dancing and witness the creativity of the costumes and props of the locals and the Aetas themselves.

Many devotees also flock to churches to attend the masses and novenas, believing that they will be blessed by the miraculous power of the Sto. Niño.

The Sunday mass homily, meanwhile, exhorts the faithful to deepen and mature in their faith, so it “doesn’t remain as young as the child Jesus,” who eventually grew old and matured to prepare him for the ultimate sacrifice of Calvary.

Outside of Aklan, the nationwide celebrations usually feature nine-day novena/masses in honor of the Holy Child or Sto. Niño; grand processions of images of the Holy Child in various incarnations – as a shepherd boy, as the keeper of the world, or as a sleeping child.

In Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, the small Sto. Niño Parish in Barangay Libertad has been celebrating the rich colorful tradition of street dancing in honor of the child Jesus for the past 25 years. Hundreds of thousands attended the celebration this year amidst the heat, then followed by heavy rains, with the performers from the different groups and devotees -- all wet and muddy -- staying on and participating in the festivity from start to finish, and calling the rain a blessing and a sign of a long fruitful year ahead.

Among the other colorful festivals frequented by tourists are the Ati-Atihan in Kalibo, Aklan, and Sinulog Festival in Cebu City (3rd Sunday); the Dinagyang Festival in Iloilo City (4th weekend); the Binanog Festival in Lambonao, Iloilo, and Sinulog (Kabangkalan) Festival in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental (2nd Sunday); and the Sto. Niño Festival in Malolos, Bulacan (last Sunday of January) among others.