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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Feel the beat of Ati-Atihan

ATI-ATIHAN FESTIVAL

The Ati-Atihan Festival is a feast held annually in January in honor of the Santo Niño (Infant Jesus), concluding on the third Sunday, in the island and town of Kalibo, Aklan in the Philippines.

The festival consists of tribal dance, music, accompanied by indigenous costumes and weapons, and parade along the street. Christians, and non-Christians observe this day with religious processions.

A 13th century (c.1200 A.D.) event explains the origins of the festival. A group of 10 Islamic warriors, Malay chieftains called Datu, 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 who worshipped Islam, Animism, and their anito. Spanish missionaries gradually added a Christian meaning. Today, the Ati-Atihan is celebrated as a religious festival.

The people attend masses for the Santo Niño, and benefit dances sponsored by government organizations. The formal opening mass emphasizes the festival’s religious event. The procession begins with a rhythmic drumbeats, and dances parading along the street. The second day begins at dawn with a rosary procession, which ends with a community mass, and procession. The highlight of the festival occurs on the last day, when groups representing different tribes compete. The festival ends with a procession of priest carrying torches, and different images of the Santo Niño. The contest winners are announced at a masquerade ball which officially ends the festival.

The Santo Niño de Cebú ("Holy Child of Cebu") is a Roman Catholic figure of the Child Jesus. The figure is clothed in robes, for centuries the Santo Niño served as the patron saint of Cebu and continues to be celebrated at the Sinulog, the primary festival of Cebú. It is located at the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño in Cebu City, Cebu, in the Philippines
History

In April 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, in the service of Charles I of Spain, arrived in Cebu during his voyage to find a westward route to the Indies [1]. He persuaded Rajah Humabon and his wife Hara Amihan, to pledge their allegiance with Spain. They were later baptized into the Catholic faith, taking the Christian names Carlos and Juana. Magellan gave Juana the Santo Niño as a symbol of the alliance. However, Magellan died during a dispute with tribes in Mactan Island.

The Spaniards returned to the Philippines in February 1565. Cebu was the settlement of Basque explorer Miguel López de Legazpi, who would later founded Manila. He defeated Rajah Tupas, the chieftain of Cebu and nephew of Rajah Humabon, on April 27, and occupied the villages. The Santo Niño was found by Juan Camus a soldier of López de Legazpi, relatively unscathed in a burnt-out hut. This event was quickly acknowledged as miraculous, and a church was later constructed on the area of the discovery. Today, the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño is a historical and religious landmark in Cebu, with devotees forming long line up to pay their respects to the Holy Child.

The Holy See has approved special liturgical texts for use during the local Feast of the Santo Niño in the Philippines, set on the third Sunday of January. The festival that follows is known as the Sinulog, which combines the festivities and religious devotion of the Cebuano people.
[edit] Patron saint

The Santo Niño was considered to be the patron saint of Cebu. However, the Santo Niño is a representation of Jesus Christ as a child. The Catholic Church in the Philippines sets the Holy Child as an example of humility, and as a celebration of the Incarnation. Many Cebuanos do not consider the Christmas season over until the Feast of the Santo Niño.

In 2002, the Archbishop of Cebu, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, declared Jesus' mother Mary, under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe as the official patron saint of Cebu. This upset some of the Santo Niño followers, who felt that the declaration demoted the Holy Child. However, the declaration is consistent with Catholic thought requiring a patron saint be a human saint who has gone to his or her heavenly reward and who prays to God on behalf of the living, rather than a divine being himself.

Since the Holy Child is a representation of Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, he cannot, as God, be considered a patron. In that sense, Cardinal Vidal's move was to actually install a patron saint for Cebu, when before there was none. He did not, however, abolish the feast or the traditional mardigras parade.

The Beat and Rhythm

Although the Ati-Atihan appears to show only revelry, a closer look shows that it has historic origins.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BO BOOM BO BO BO BOOM!
BOOM BOOM BOOM BO BOOM BO BO BO BOOM!

The beating of bass drums and the rhythmic tinkling of metal and stone on bottles echo in the air during the celebration. Monotonous and vivacious, the music blasts a while then stops to wait for a response from others. Drums beat continuously and everyone talks and shouts,

HALA BIRA, PUERA PASMA!

By midmorning, small groups gather in their respective neighborhoods. They are prodded by drums as they dance their way to the town center. They grow in numbers as different groups from remote areas merge into one as they get closer to the center of town. Sometimes the crowd thins as a few drops out to worship in silence and offer themselves to their own gods. But they always come back to rejoin the group to disappear in the gyrating crowd. The dancing never stops.
All week long, celebrants arrive by land, sea, and air. As inter-island boats dock, they are greeted by pseudo-New Guinea tribal drummers. Tourists are ferried across rice fields and coconut plantations to Kalibo hotels while others are accommodated in private homes and public buildings. Others camp on the beach. By weekend all accommodations are gone although there seems to be no need for them as nobody bothers to sleep anyway. There is music everywhere and the loud crowd often finds itself inside improvised halls dancing all night long.
The steady beat of drums can sometimes be heard late in the night as a single drummer is suddenly inspired to pick up the rhythm.

VIVA EL SEÑOR SANTO NIÑO!

Celebrants ape the dance of the Atis. This ritual is said to be the result of the sale of land in Panay by the Ati chieftain Marikudo to Datu Puti and the Borneans so that they can have a place to settle.
It has been observed that the unyielding street dancers never fail to enter the Kalibo church every time they pass by. Repeated shouts of "Viva kay Santo Niño!" and placards carried around with the same slogan make it known to everybody that this profane merriment is the participants' rowdy way of honoring the Santo Niño.

The coming of the Santo Niño into the fiesta started with the involvement of the first encomiendero of Aklan, Don Antonio Flores. He made arrangements with Datu Malanga and Datu Madayog to have their then existing native celebration be dedicated to the Santo Niño.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BO BOOM BO BO BO BOOM!

Among the Visayans, the Spaniards wrote, it is not quite proper to drink alone or to appear drunk in public. Drinking is done in small groups or in "gatherings where men as well as women sat on opposite sides of the room, and any passerby was welcome to join in." Father Loarca admired their control for they rarely got angry when drunk and Alcina relates that the Visayans could decide disputes in the "best, quickest and most equitable way" when wine was used to enliven the discussion. "After drinking something, he who proposes does it with eloquence, those who respond, with discretion, those who decide, with attention, and all with fairness."

One of the first things the Spaniards learned about the Visayans was that they were good drinkers. Magellan had no sooner landed in Homonhon, when people from nearby Suluan presented him a jarful of what Pigafetta recorded as uraca--that is, arak, the Malay-Arabic word for distilled liquor. In Limasawa, Pigafetta drank from the same cup as Rajah Kolambu, and his translator, Enrique de Malacca, got so drunk he wasn't of much use; a few days later, the local harvest was delayed while Kolambu and his brother Awi slept off a hangover. In Cebu, Pigafetta drank palm wine, tuba nga nipa, straight from the jar with reed straws together with Rajah Humabon, but in Quipit he excused himself after one draught when Rajah Kalanaw and his companions finished a whole jar withour eating anything.

Looking for the Prehispanic Filipino

The early acceptance of Catholic rituals had much to do with the eventual suppression of the natives' ritual drinking. The Spanish clergy did not oppose moderate drinking but were able to attack excessive indulgence as a threat to public morality. What aroused the friars was that drinking was tightly bound to pagan celebrations of betrothals, weddings, and funerals. These activities would eventually be eliminated among Christianized Filipinos. (Phelan, 76-7)
However, this did not happen with the Ati-Atihan.

HALA BIRA!
BOOM BOOM BOOM BO BOOM BO BO BO BOOM!

In spite of the isolation of some native settlements, the fiesta enabled the religious orders to reach out to their scattered flock. "There were three fiestas of consequence to the Filipinos, namely, Holy Week, Corpus Christi, and the feast in honor of the patron saint of the locality." The natives would flock to the cabecera and it was also an opportunity to teach them in Christianity. Fiestas offered religious processions, dances, music, and theatrical presentations to the people. Although it may be "sacred or profane blended together...it is highly doubtful that the Filipino were aware of the ceremony's elaborate liturgical symbolism, but they obviously enjoyed the pageantry involved." This statement seems particularly appropriate for the Ati-Atihan. Wherever the flock may be, they can hear the drumbeats from far-away Kalibo calling them at the start of every year.
Kalibo's Ati-Atihan has become so admired that similar festivals have cropped up all over Western Visayas. Antique has its Binirayan and Handugan festivals while Iloilo City has a more lavish and choreographed edition called Dinagyang. Bacolod, not one to be left behind, has also started its own version. (Hoefer, 255) In Cebu, it comes as Pit Senyor, a hopping dance to drums, (Joaquin, 18) or Sinulog. Today, Ati-Atihan is celebrated in the Aklan towns of Makato, Altavas, and Ibajay, a small town northeast of Kalibo which claims to be the original site where the Negritos came down from the hills to celebrate with the lowlanders. Of course, this claim is recounted in various towns along the northeast coast of Panay but through the years, Kalibo has established itself as the Ati-Atihan center.

PUERA PASMA!
BOOM BOOM BOOM BO BOOM BO BO BO BOOM!

The original commemoration of a land barter and thankfulness to the Provider for the post-monsoon harvest has turned into a feast day for the Santo Niño. He is the direct link to the Father, the God of all, the Redeemer from infamy, the Absolver of all sins, the Deliverer to a better life. That is why Filipinos carry Him close to their hearts as a talisman, or anting-anting, and as protection from the unholy.

HALA BIRA! Boom pak. PUERA PASMA! Boom pak.
HALA BIRA! Boom pak. PUERA PASMA! Boom pak.

There is so much to be thankful for. It could be the achievement of a good trade, a bountiful harvest, release from famine and storm, a peace pact between military people, a prayer answered, a vow reaffirmed, or just plain ecstasy for life. The beat goes on and frenzy builds up in the noonday heat as sweat and brew eats up the senses. Icons of history, pop characters, and political personages dance with Congolese warriors in mock battle with caballeros. The celebrants' dreams are reinforced by rosaries and prayers which absolve them from their sins and resurrect them as new persons, maybe with a hangover, but definitely saved again.
Once inside the church these costumed revelers would kneel along the communion rail to have their heads, shoulders, and backs rubbed by the now exhausted sacristan, priest, or church helper with a small statue of the Santo Niño. And just as the Ati-Atihan is an outward display of revelry and adoration, the devotee is in search of something which is missing from within. That which was empty is now filled, probably as much with spirit from the bottle as much as anything else. The celebrant becomes at peace with himself, the world, and his god. The loob (inner self) is once again purified by the performance of the ritual of the (celebration) panlabas.
With church bells ringing to the rhythm of HALA BIRA! PUERA PASMA! a now cleansed assembly of revelers stagger back to the streets of the Ati-Atihan climax, the end of a long precession where muggers, gropers and thieves have rubbed elbows with schoolgirls and church ladies tearfully singing religious hymns. The twin lights of media and tourism have done their bit in egging the frenzy on, but at the core, it is only the Filipino pulling two polar ends of his soul together.

manongdrayber signed off at 3:12 AM