Negros Day

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5th of November






            Every 5th of November better known as Negros Day in the Province of Negros Occidental is a celebration of freedom from the colonization of  Spaniards , a historical event depicted at the Cannon Festival of  Bago City where you see  rolled sawali mats painted in black on top of  carriages with men in revolutionary attire carrying coconut stalks with knives at one end to look like bayonets while marching towards Bacolod in 1898. Today, the loud sounds of the cannons along the main streets of Bago no longer tell us about fear from enemies but a sweet memory of freedom  many years back. This is how significant this celebration has become.
One can visit Silay City  for the annual KAON TA event, a food festival showcasing the delicacies of the town and home grown recipes where you get to taste in Silay and during the two day festival. Was able to witness the gastronomic festival last year, this time though  I decided to take a road trip on the long and winding road to the north via the ecotourism  highway overlooking the beautiful mountainside at Murcia, Salvador Benedicto and San City which was less than two hours travel. The green scenery was relaxing and our driver Carlos made sure we arrived on time being a seasoned driver , passing through the same route for more than five years.
Sunflowers, body painting, colourful costumes, beautiful headdress, a pretty festival queen dancing to the beat of the drums in her flower designed ball gown , so graceful as she dances the four basic steps of the Pintaflores like the gesture on reaching the flowers with two arms obliquely in upward position known in the visayan dialect as Pagkab-ot, then she moves her arms wide open reaching the other interchangeably manifesting of showcasing the painted arms called the Pinta-taw, the ‘Alimyun’ is another movement which means ‘aroma’, a dance figure with two palms covering the nose and mouth then slowly raised as if smelling the flowers, the best part in this dance though is the ‘Paglipay’ or merrymaking where you see dancers raise their arms in V position slowly maneuvering down the hips plus  the chanting and singing of the  festival song . Pintaflores is the festival of San Carlos City which celebrated its 25th year that started in 1992 as Pintados de Negros and later on changed to Pintaflores according to one of its founder Mr. King Catalbas. PG Maisog with Roland Andutan and the  tourism staff and  were everywhere taking care of visitors and the conduct of the street dance. 


Mayor Gerardo Valmayor was at the stage by the market area in the afternoon watching the performance of the five clusters. Vice Governor Bong Lacson was at the arena area which was filled up by spectators. Joe Alingasa of the City Disaster Risk and Management Office made sure medics were available for any untoward incident. As chairman of the board of judges it was really hard to choose the best with all five clusters so good in their performances. Tribu Sumilan of Don Carlos Ledesma National High School was Champion for the dance festival and received special awards such as Best in Street Dance, Best in Ritual, Best in Cat Suit, Best in Headdress and Best in Flower Formation,plus Best in  Choreography and Musicality , 1st Runner Up was Tribu Lumad Sipawaynon with Sipaway National High School, followed by Tribu Ju Les Des represented by Jules Ledesma National High School. Festival Queen this year is Ms. Florence Joy Tuting of Tribu Banaag.
A visit to the city during the weeklong festivities will not be complete without a visit to   the Peoples Park and the display of ‘ukay-ukay , there is a wide array of prelove  bags and  clothes some called relief goods and others over runs at a very affordable prize as low as five pesos. Peanuts is also a must buy in the city for pasalubong.
The festivities ended with fireworks display and a concert by the hashtags and some local artist.

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