NEWSFLASH

ATI-ATIHAN FESTIVITIES BEGIN

Kalibo, Aklan, Jan. 15, 2002 - The province of Aklan is ready to host thousands of local and foreign tourists expected to attend and participate in the country’s most famous and colorful fiesta: the Ati-Atihan.

The Feast of the Sto. Nino is capped by a procession on the third Sunday that is Jan. 20 this year. Also known as the Ati-atihan, the centuries-old festival is the precursor of today's mardi gras festivals like the Dinagyang in Iloilo and Sinulog in Cebu.

"The Ati-atihan Festival this year will be more colorful and more merry," says Kalibo Mayor Reymar Rebaldo. Airlines have scheduled more flights, and more ocean vessels as well as a floating hotel have announced special trips.

For accommodations, there are first class hotels and homes for tourists on home-stay budgets.

Ati-atihan costumes retain the distinctive themes that have made the festival an attraction, while designer-consultants have volunteered their services to tribal groups. Supporting KAMB's efforts are local organizations like the Aklan Ati-atihan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AACCII) as well as the provincial government.

The AACCII maintains an ati-atihan website (www.ati-atihan.com) where visitors, tourists and Sto. Nino devotees can get comprehensive information about the world-renowned event, including local travel and accommodations.

Aklan Governor Florencio T. Miraflores, observing that the Aklan Ati-atihan was chosen by the United Nations Committee on Tourism in 1983 as Asia's best tourist attraction, commended local government officials, the local chamber of commerce and volunteers "who sweated and toiled to make the Ati-atihan celebration more organized and well promoted."

As has been the custom for centuries, the Ati-atihan is also celebrated with the same fun, fervor and devotion in the Aklan towns of Altavas, Makato and Ibajay.

More than 40 Ati tribes in Kalibo will vie for this year's P1 million pot for the best Ati-atihan groups. These groups, attired in black mixed with a range of colors as well as costumes, have given the Ati-Atihan its distinctive image. Black remains the dominant theme, as in ati-ati (or making like the Ati, or Aeta).

Aklan's Ati-atihan festival traces its root to the purchase of Panay island from the aboriginal Atis by Bornean Datus in the 13th century. Today it has become a hodge-podge of Catholic rituals, pagan revelry, social commentary and local drama.

Ati-atihan celebrants paint their faces with black soot and wear bright, outlandish costumes as they dance in wild abandon on the streets to the beat of drums, cymbals, lyres and native instruments.

Catholics observe the special festival with processions, parades, dancing, and merrymaking. Devotees attend novena masses for the Holy Child or Santo Niño.

The formal opening mass on Saturday, Jan. 19, emphasizes the festival's religious substance. The start of the revelry is signaled by rhythmic, intoxicating drum beats as the streets explode with tumultuous dancing. The second day begins at dawn with a rosary procession and a community mass.

Aside from the spontaneous street dancing, tourists and devotees can watch the reenactment of the purchase of Panay, the coronation of Miss Kalibo Ati-atihan 2002, a fireworks show and the Higante (giant paper mache) Parade.

An Aklan Fair at the main plaza that features the best of the province's products, handicraft, processed food and cut flowers.

Religious devotees pay homage to the Sto. Niño through daily masses and dawn rosaries as well as the pahilot or paeapak, a ritual in which a Catholic priest or a lay minister rubs all parts of a person's body with the image of the Sto. Niño. The act is believed to heal both body and soul and to make barren women fertile.

Each night for the whole week, a fantastic "ati-atihan" party erupts at Magsaysay Park.

The highlight of the festival comes on the last day when groups representing different Ati tribes compete in a stunning display of absolute revelry. Shouts of "Hala Bira! Viva kay Senor Sto. Niño!" reverberate in the air. As the staccato of sound reaches crescendo, one can't help but dance wildly to the uniquely Ati-atihan beat, inhibitions vanishing into the wind.

The day ends with a procession of parishioners carrying bamboo torches and different images of the Santo Niño.