The highlight of my 5-day visit to Aklan with Gil Bilog, my wife Grace’s first cousin (on her mother’s side), was our visit to Ibajay town to attend the Ati-Atihan. Held on the weekend after the more well-known and recently held (just a week ago) Kalibo version of the festival, this Ati-Atihan is less commercialized but just as old and is said by Ibajaynons to be the original and more authentic of the two. It being a Sunday, Gil and I planned to leave very early to make it to the town’s 8:30 AM mass. Joining us was Carl Flores, John Paul Sta. Maria and Jayrel Vicedo, Grace’s first cousin, nephew and grandnephew respectively (all on her father’s side). Jayrel was to drive us there on our Mitsubishi Adventure. We left Malay poblacion by 7:30 AM and the 35-km. drive took just a little over 30 mins.
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| Gil and I outside the Church of St. Peter the Apostle |
After parking our car at the town center, we made a short walk to the Church of St. Peter the Apostle. When we entered the church, the main aisle was cleared of pews and the churchgoers, including us, stood at the sides. Special guest was Kalibo Bishop Jose Corazon Talaoc who delivered his homily in Aklanon. Many devotees brought images of the highly venerated Sto. Nino (Holy Child Jesus), in varying shapes and sizes. Old stories said that the image of the Sto. Nino miraculously protected Ibajay from the bandits and and Moro pirates by preventing the invaders from docking their ships along the shoreline of the town.
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| The church interior |
The end of the mass signaled the start of the culminating parade, a competition among groups (representing different tribes), with devotees dressed as warriors in flamboyant and colorful costumes made from native materials adroitly fashioned into feathers, headdresses and vests and carrying images of the Sto. Nino. By tradition, the devotees paint their faces with black soot and imitated the playful likeness of the Ati (or Aetas), the short, dark-skinned and kinky-haired first settlers of the Philippines. Ibajay claims to be the original site where the Atis came down from the hills to celebrate with the lowlanders.
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| Devotees dressed in flamboyant and colorful costumes |
This parade is coupled with festive merrymaking, with heads, torsos, hands and feet gyrating and swaying to the sounds of whistles and rhythmic, hypnotic and continuous beating of drums with repeated shouts of “Viva Kay Senor Sto, Nino Viva!” Some tourists and locals also smeared their arms, legs, and even their whole torso with soot, and joined in the street dancing.
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| A coconut-themed float |
There were also simple floats, representing the town’s different barangays, decorated with palm fronds, fruits and vegetables and the all-important image of the Sto. Nino. On stakes were cooked fish, grilled chicken, succulent steamed mud crabs, cholesterol-rich lechon (roasted pigs) and even bayawak (monitor lizards). The parade wound through the town, from the municipal hall to the main highway and back to the town center ending with an entrance to the church for a blessing.
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| Bayawak and steamed mud crabs on stakes |
Unlike other major festivals, there’s no big cash prize for the best float, costume or dancing. We watched the parade from our vantage point at the palatial residence of Ang Kasangga Partylist Cong. Teodorico “Nonong” T. Haresco, Jr. (a fourth cousin of Grace). After the parade, we dined, as guests of Cong. Haresco, on lechon, prawns and a dessert of buko pandan. After lunch, we dropped by the residence of Judge Cesar Sta. Maria (another fourth cousin of Grace) and posed by the Ibajay Municipal Hall before returning to Malay.
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| L-R: Jayrel, Gil, the author and Carl |