The Dinagyang festival is celebrated every fourth weekend of January to honor the Christianization of the natives and to respect the Holy child Jesus. Last January 20-22, 2012, Iloilo city celebrated Dinagyang Festival in honor of Senior Sto. Nino. On this day, the streets of Iloilo will once again come alive as the Ilonggo celebrates the annual festivity.
The thundering of "Hala Bira" by the tribe members makes the celebration a lively one. It is also a very popular tagline used by the Ilonggos to express their warm participation during the "Dinagyang" celebration. A tribute in honor of Senior Sto. Nino whom Ilonggos believe was very miraculous in time of famine and drought.
Iloilo is also known in very rich culture. You can also see their different productions in which every tribe shows the culture of the Ilonggos.
Their costumes also shows how creative and resourceful they are. Here in the picture you can see that their costumes are usually made in chicken feathers. The colors of the chicken feathers that we usually see in their costumes are blue, red and yellow because it is attractive to the eyes and can be easily seen even if your far away. But now different colors are combined to make their costumes more attractive.
Aside from the tribes that are joining in the festival, another attraction is which is a friendly 6'9" tall aeta-kid mascot. He was once a black colored mascot but now it was changed to dark brown because it is the authentic color of the aetas. According to Jimena, "wherever Dagoy goes people will be reminded of the Dinagyang festival. Once Dagoy shakes your hand, it simply means that you are welcome to Iloilo".
The Ilonggos are very talented because of the the ethnic steps and dances that they showed during the festival.
In the early times, Ilonggos believed that the animals are their gods which is called animism in ati culture. They imitate the ways of a particular animal in which they believed that it is the symbol and source of their strength and later at the end of their performance we can see that they are bowing to the Sto. Nino because they found out that someone is more greater and more powerful than the animal they are worshiping and that is God in the person of the Sto. Nino. An example of this is in this picture in which Tribu Pan-ay believed that the eagle is their god and imitated the ways of the said bird.
All I can say is Dinagyang is the best festival ever in Panay and I'm proud to be an Ilonggo.
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