The Spirit of Fiesta; 

Diyandi Festival of Iligan City, Philippines   

Just as the city celebrated its annual holiday of fiesta, the Diyandi Festival, in honor of Sr. San Miguel or Saint Michael the Archangel as the city’s patron saint, tourists, city neighbors, and the overseas Filipino workers whose families live in the city gathered themselves on September 29, 2016 to celebrate the feast with joyful dancing parades or street dancing, house-to-house visit in friends’ and even in strangers’ homes, night party with the participants showered with colored water or locally called waterval party, and many other events.

    

The word Diyandi is a local name, which means to celebrate. It has already been used during the celebration for the patron saint, but it was only made official as the name of the festival in 2004.   

Iligan City is just a small town located in the southern part of the Philippines, but when it comes to Philippine cultures and tradition, there is no such thing as small because everytime a city celebrates its foundation or fiesta all the people in the world are invited. Eventually, as expected, the fiesta of Iligan City was crowded with many people, mostly non-inhabitants of the city. The Iliganons (people living in Iligan City) were very happy to meet other people.    

It is the culture of the Filipino to meet and know other people. In fact, it is the only celebration within a year that the city becomes lively and the Iliganons can wear big smiles.    What makes the culture of the Philippines in terms of feasts unique from other cultures is that invitation is no more needed. Everyone can celebrate the fiesta. Even a stranger can enter a house and eat the food on the table while hospitably entertained by the owners. There is no relatives, bloodline, friends, classmates, neighbors, or any connection with the families required for a person to join home to celebrate with the families the fiesta.    

Moreover, a stranger can also invite friends who are also strangers to the owner of the house, but it does not matter anymore. As long as a strange visitor has no bad intention at bad records at all, he or she is welcome home.   

The celebration is mainly guided with the Catholic faith. The Spaniards brought the concept of fiesta to the entire Philippines during their colonization. Its origin lies in the different stories of the saints in Catholicism. Each saint has a story to be told and a barangay, province, municipality, or city assigned to the saint is the one to practice it during the fiesta. It was done by the procession made during the coming down of the saint from the heaven and will end the celebration by again the procession from the street to the church to witness the departure of the saint to the heaven.      

The Preserved Street Dancing 

As many people would say, the fiesta cannot be complete without the street dancing. It has been preserved for many decades. It is the most-awaited event throughout the celebration. The street dancing gathers additional participation from the outsiders, too. Dance groups in the other places in the country are sent letters of invitation by the organizer of the event just to cater all the people to the city in the way the Iliganons are also invited to their places during their fiestas.    

The street dancing consists of the religious symbolism represented in dance pertaining to the victory of the Sr. San Miguel against Satan. The dancers wear ethnic or traditional costumes with colorful designs and ornaments. It is conceptualized in Catholic principles about the bravery of Sr. San Miguel in beating Satan. Therefore, all the dances of the participants would end up in similar scene, the victory of San Miguel against Satan by putting a foot of San Miguel over the body of Satan.      

Beautifully Colorful Horse Rides 

The city retains its traditional ways as a form of remembrance from the time when the means of transportation around the city was still the horse rides. During the fiesta, it was showcased as one of the tourist rides aside from Racal (a solar-powered mini-car) with colorful designs decorated all around the bodies of the horses depending of the choices of the horse owners as well as their back rides. Indeed, it was the center of attraction on the streets with the lights of the decorations around the rides shining throughout the city.      

Lechong Baboy Fiesta 

Every single visitor at home would always look for lechong baboy on the table. Lechong baboy or roasted pig is the king of the dining in Philippine fiesta. It is usually prepared the night before the fiesta. The lechong baboy is mostly grilled at home. Almost all the Filipinos especially males know how to prepare roasted pig. Filipino families rarely buy cooked pork at the “Lechonan” (store for roasted pig) unless when it is not a fiesta holiday.    

It can be communal like all male members of the community gather together to prepare the roasted pig and distributed one-by-one to each of the houses after being cooked, or it can be cooked alone at home and when it is ready it, is shared to the neighbors.  The Waterval Party   This party is bombarded with teenagers. It is the latest “pakulo” or strategy to attract more visitors in the city. It is a disco party with the participants wearing white shirts that would usually get wet when the water shower begins. The water shower can be colored or plain. The party is kinda weird as all of its party-goers usually go home wet.    

Every place in the Philippines celebrates fiesta once a year. No matter how many calamities the Filipinos would face, this cannot stop them from having the party. The fiesta is just a reflection of how delightful and hospitable the Filipinos are. So the next time around, you should visit the place, and you’ll probably go home with a big smile. 

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