Higantes Festival 2010

Just across the lake where i live lies the bustling town of Angono, Rizal. In the Philippines where fiestas and festivals are almost held everywhere and are fast becoming two cents a piece, still the favorites are those that were grounded deeply in the town's traditions and religious fervor. Who would have thought that just at the outskirts of the traffic-laced metropolitan, is held a colorful fiesta in honor of San Clemente, the patron saint of fishermen.  The town's celebration is no ordinary fiesta where food and music are staple, but lo! is marked by Higantes...

Ang nuno, where the town got its name...stems from the town's equally colorful folklore and legends.

Intrigued by the much-heard about festival of higantes, my friends and i travelled to Angono to be part of its celebration.

The feast of San Clemente, the little girls garbed in colorful and fancy dresses, the banderitas....and the Higantes.  Yup, we have arrived.

Well, its not easy being a parehadera....

With the higantes also comes the parade of little 'parehaderas' . The parehaderas are those cute little girls carrying decorated little paddles symbolizing the town's fishing origins.  Every town has their own small fleet of parehaderas, but its no small feat...i was informed that being one of those girls is a privilege! To be able to parade, to be able to dance in the streets, auditions are held....these folks really take it seriously. A contest on the best parehaderas is also held annually....that we miss! but the parade of the vibrant little parehaderas is also a sight to see. 

The Higantes, made of paper mache in the olden times and resin for some of them now is definitely still the highlight of the festival.  Its one of the things that put Angono on the map.

The nuno is the head of the parade! my friends just love him. Take it easy, he still has a long day ahead!

I read from the Philippine website, that "the 'higante' tradition began last century, when Angono was a Spanish hacienda. The hacienda owners concerned about costs prohibited all celebrations except for one annual fiesta. The townspeople concerned about enjoyment decided to make the best of a bad situation. Using an art form brought from Mexico by Spanish priests, they created larger-than-life caricatures of their Spanish landlords. In typical Filipino fashion, the fiesta become in equal parts, a stunning spectacle and a tricky inside joke".

Modernization and technology also influenced the making of the higante through the years. Paper mache is changed to clay to plaster of Paris and resin. The mold is usually pasted with newspapers to form the mache then split in the middle and sun-dried.  It is then pasted with  brown paper (the slit being covered), sun-dried again and painted. The body is made of bamboo, but other materials like yantok (rattan) and thin iron bars can also be used. Yards and yards of clothing materials and accessories complete the costume of the "Higantes".

Before, the Angono town fiesta features a "Mag-anak" (family) Higantes consisting of three figures, the father, the mother and the son. In 1987, Mr. Perdigon Vocalan visualized the idea of having a Higante Festival wherein all the barangays in Angono(13 of them) are to be represented by two to four Higantes symbolizing the industry or the personality of the barangay.

Since representing the town became the tradition, the townfolks made higantes that represented the town's major industry such as the itikan, etc. Now higantes were also made by the major businesses in the area. I missed that parade where jollibee also has a higante of their own...hmmm, who could that be? jollibee?

On top of the display table, we got sight of these cool replicas of higantes. Mini-gantes anyone?

The family, aside from nuno, symbolizes this festival.  The 'Mag-anak' consisting of the father, mother and son is an all-time favorite.

The previous years showed higantes in different forms and personalities.  There was once a contest among the Higantes, where one can see a Higante with a duck on its head and another one a basketful of duck eggs representing a barangay that is known for its fried itik and balut-making. Yup, as i said, it became also a parade of the major businesses....

Oh my god! P-Noy is right behind me! (starstruck)



Yup, politicos have their own higantes...from the Philippine president, the vice, down to the mayor.  Luckily, the town fiesta is held on a november, not during the campaigns preceeding the national elections..harhar

Still,the higantes never fail to captivate our newbie eyes...colorful, enchanted and vivacious....

Amidst the fanfare of the festivities, the fiesta is still about the patron saint of Angono, San Clemente.  Legend has it that the image of San Clemente was fished out of the waters of Wawa...since then, the people celebrated the moment by holding a fluvial  celebration where San Clemente is paraded through the river.

We never got to see the fluvial parade, since it started at 4 am down the river.  But we got to witness the colorful parade of parehaderas...

and their spectacular trainers cum crazy majorettes....

The parade isnt just a parade...its a career! all the pretty dresses...the prettier the girls, the shorter it gets! or so it seemed.

The colors are heaven to photographers and 'feeling' photographers like me!

Yup, dont dare miss their leads, they come in all sorts...

Small as they are, and tired as they are...they still parade with pride....

Through the streets of Angono...first going to the river to  bring San Clemente to the river for the fluvial parade. Then hoisting San Clemente out of the river to parade again on their way to Angono church, bringing him home to his rightful place by the Altar.

Ok, so its not just for the little ones....

But for all ages, from the young to the old....

To the most pretty....

To the weird...

To the truly bizarre and macabre...

Ah! the festivities did not stop with the colorful parade...going back to legend, fishing San Clemente out of the muddy waters of Wawa made the fishermen really muddy...to wash away the mud (and maybe also symbolic of humanly sins) washing with water is made part of Angono's traditions....

And so it goes. These are not just spectators. Every body has their own guns and ammunitions: squirt guns, pails, pitchers...anything that can hold water....yup, even firetrucks....lots of them!

Lots and lots of water...it is a day where cubic tons of water are rained down on the streets, onto the sea of people, the parade...the tourists....water, just water everywhere....no one is spared....

See? even the Virgin Mary is prepared....

What not  to wear in Angono? Huh! anything but RED....they're like bulls running after a target! that's me, where drenched is an understatement...my friend described this experience as Angono's version of plants and zombies survival endless...yup, i definitely felt like i'll flower out any minute now...with all that water...

In between drenching...revel at the marvels you'll see at the streets...rich, lively.....

And definitely, definitely weird....

Just an afterthought, this really scary guy is actually  part of Angono's folklore...the bakulaw or bampira?  we saw a painting of him at Balaw Balaw, a restaurant that features the arts of Angono...including the best of its food...

This is one festival that really put us out there in the streets, celebrating the event together with its people, enjoying every minute of it...and taking part of the wash out, wash down...even being wet all over made it really fun.  After being burned out at work all year round, this experience literally cooled me down! can't wait for next year....

I'll definitely be back, with my own squirt gun ha!