In Iloilo City, it has been said
that in November 1967, “Ati-Atihan” began at the San Jose Parish Church at
Plaza Libertad through the initiative of Fr. Ambrosio Galindez who was inspired
by the “Ati-Atihan” in Kalibo as a devotion to Sr. Sto. Niño. His parishioners
danced on the streets, their bodies covered with soot and ashes while carrying
images of the Sto. Niño just like how the Kalibonhons used to celebrate the
feast of Sr. Sto. Niño every third Sunday of January.
When the late President Ferdinand
Marcos ordered the various regions of the Philippines to come up with festivals
or celebrations that could boost tourism, the local government of Iloilo City began
to carry out the running of the annual Iloilo “Ati-Atihan” which was renamed
later by a non-Catholic to what is now known –the “Dinagyang” which means
“merry-making”.
From this little fact, we can
cull out two themes: the celebration of the feast of Sr. Sto. Niño by the Church
and then the celebration of the feast of Sr. Sto. Niño as adopted by the local
government but with some innovations for socio-cultural, economic and tourism
reasons.
Kalibo’s celebration of the Ati-Atihan,
there is no doubt, is focused on the devotion to Sr. Sto. Niño. No one seems to
bother about this until the true meaning of the celebration is about to fade away from the mind and heart of Kalibonhons.
In the early 1950’s, there was no
“Ati-Atihan”. The oldest surviving folks of Kalibo did not mention the word
“Ati-Atihan”. But every January, there has always been a celebration in Kalibo.
It was the feast of the Sto. Niño. Every Kalibonhon referred to this event as
the Sto. Niño: “Viva, kay Sr. Sto. Niño!” In other words, what many people now
call the “Ati-Atihan”, the old and native Kalibonhons still call the Sto. Niño.
For the true-blooded, born and bred, Kalibonhons, the annual January event is
still the Feast of the Sto. Niño, and they call it by no other name.
It happened in 1975, the then
Mayor Federico O. Icamina requested the local church authorities of the Parish
of St. John the Baptist to celebrate the mass in honour of Sr. Sto. Niño at the
Kalibo Town Plaza which was graced by the presence of the then President
Ferdinand Marcos and first lady Imelda Marcos. Prior to this, the celebration
of the mass on the feast of Sr. Sto. Niño was held inside the parish church.
The following year (1976), the said
parish church (of St. John the Baptist) in Kalibo was elevated to a Cathedral
when the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kalibo was erected and Bishop Juan N. Nilmar
was made the first Bishop of Kalibo. It was during the time of Bishop Nilmar
that the celebration of the Holy Mass in honour of Sr. Sto. Niño was held at
the town Plaza which also became a yearly tradition with the active involvement
of the local government of Kalibo.
The local government of Kalibo,
spearheaded by the then Mayor Federico O. Icamina, recreated the celebration of
the feast of Sr. Sto. Niño for national as well as for international tourist
attraction. Since then, the celebration has become more popular all over the
world under its name “Ati-Atihan”.
In 1993, when Bishop Gabriel V.
Reyes assumed his office as the Bishop of the Diocese of Kalibo, year after
year, he pastorally reminded the faithful to bring back the true meaning of
the celebration –a devotion to the Sr. Sto. Niño. He even considered the
Cathedral a Shrine of the Sto. Niño during the reconstruction of the Kalibo
Cathedral in 1993. He would refer to the celebration of the mass at the town
plaza as Pilgrims’ Mass. He also exhorted the local government of Kalibo to name
the celebration, “Kalibo Sr. Sto. Niño Ati-Atihan Festival”.
In 2005, a shooting occurred
after the mass in honour of Sr. Sto. Niño was held at the Pastrana Park. Despite
the fact, the then Bishop Jose Romeo O. Lazo of Kalibo led the grand procession
of Sr. Sto. Niño. People could still hear the sounds of the drums and the lyre
during the procession but at that moment, it was done more solemnly. Most of
those who joined the procession held an image of the Sto. Niño instead of a
beer, rum or whiskey.
In 2006, the then President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo made the strongest promotional pitch to boost tourism in
Aklan as she declared the Kalibo “Ati-Atihan” as the “Mother of all Philippine
native festivals.”
What makes “Ati-Atihan” the
mother of all Philippine native festivals?
The Barter of Panay which has been
associated with the secular origin of the celebration, and was believed to date
from 1212, gave “Ati-Atihan” a cause to bear the title as the country’s oldest
festival. However, in 1968, the Maragtas, the book which contained the story of
Barter of Panay, was classified as a book of legends rather than a historical
fact by William Henry Scott. Then recently the National Historical Commission
of the Philippines and the National Commission on the Culture and the Arts
confirmed there is no Barter of Panay that ever happened. Does this mean that
“Ati-Atihan” has been celebrated for nothing? No! Homegrown Kalibonhons know
that “Ati-Atihan” as a festival exists because of the celebration of the feast
of the Sto. Niño and not because of the Barter of Panay.
So how the annual celebration of
the devotional feast of the Sto. Niño got started in Kalibo? Well, no one in
this time can say with authority. Kalibohons have not archived any old historical
records about the Sr. Sto. Niño unlike that of the Sto. Niño of Cebu. In the written
event related to the Sto. Niño of Cebu, the only contact of Panay was in
building the Church for the latter.
It was said that on April 14,
1521, Rajah Humabon, the ruler of Cebu, asked to be baptized after hearing from
Spanish Conquistadores about Jesus Christ. He was named Carlos, after King
Charles V of Spain. On the same day, his wife and some Cebuanos were baptized
by Magellan’s chaplain. The event marked the beginning of the Christianization
of the Philippines. The wife of Humabon was named Juana, after the mother of
King Charles V. Magellan presented her with an image of the Child Jesus as a
baptismal gift. Queen Juana installed the image in her royal mansion.
On April 27, 1565, Miguel Lopez
de Legazpi reached Cebu but met with resistance from the natives of Cebu. The
Spanish ships fired their cannons, causing much damage to the town. In one of
the damaged houses, a Spanish soldier named Juan Camus found an unscathed image
of the Child Jesus. The image was believed to be the one which Magellan
presented to Rajah Humabon’s wife in 1521. Legazpi and his men
allotted a place for the church where the Sto. Niño image had been found. The
present Church, built with stones carried by banca from Panay, was started on February 29, 1735.
But speaking briefly here of
Panay in relation to the Sto. Niño proves nothing except that the stones for the
construction of the church were carried by banca
from Panay. The word Panay is also broad enough to refer only to Kalibo just to
establish a hint that the history of the Sto. Niño of Cebu has something to do
with the Sto. Niño of Kalibo.
In looking for the foundational
story (origin) of the Sto. Niño of Kalibo, the book, Conquistas de las Islas
Filipinas (1565-1615) by Gaspar de San Agustin, OSA. was used by some local
historians as reference to tell that in year 1569, one thousand (1000) natives
of Kalibo were baptized in mass. To celebrate the great event, the natives and
the Spaniards went around the place beating drums, singing and dancing,
shouting and greeting each other with “Viva kay Señor Santo Niño! Viva!”
But this is far from what was
written in Spanish which states:
“Fue Aclan antiguamente tan
grande que el solo tuvo mil tributaries, y por esto se llama el pueblo Calibo,
que significa mil, porque el nombre de Aclan es del rio.”
In the original Spanish text, the
one thousand (1000) refers to the number of tributes (to the King of Spain) and
not to the number of baptized natives. The book is even silent about the Sto.
Niño or a presence of an “Ati” in Kalibo.
Due to the difficulty of reconstructing
the origin of the Sto. Niño of Kalibo, a plausible explanation to fill the gaps
could be found from the early writing of the then Parish Priest of St. John the
Baptist Parish of Kalibo, Msgr. Jose Iturralde. In 1975, Msgr. Iturralde published
his work under the title “Historia sang Santo Niño Cag Ate-Ate” which had not
gained much popular acceptance among Kalibonhons. Local historians of Kalibo
had never mentioned about it in any of their writings related to the “Ati-Atihan”
and it was not even referred to in the “Recuerdo”, a Souvenir Book published by
the Catholic Church herself on the occasion of the Sto. Niño Festival, on
January 16, 1994. But now that Kalibo is deprived of its time-honored belief of
the historical foundation of the Sto. Niño “Ati-Atihan Festival”, the hour has
come to turn to this oldest manuscript which deals directly with the origin of Sto.
Niño and “Ati-Atihan”. A surviving copy only came out when a researcher
borrowed it from a Kalibonhon and a relative of the monsignor who kept it
together with her several documents about “Ati-Atihan”.
The “Historia sang Santo Niño Cag
Ate-Ate” speaks of the two stories of origin of the Santo Niño with Ate-Ate: one
is that of Ibajay and the other is that of Malinao and of Kalibo. With regard
to the first, it is beyond contestation for it takes root in Ibajaynons’
collective memory: “Suno sa tradicion o con pa-alinton nga suguid sang mga
catigulangan sa banwa sang Ibajay”. But with regard to the second, particularly
on the origin of Santo Niño with Ate-Ate in Kalibo, it cannot stand without
raising more questions on the mind and heart of Kalibonhons. If the “Narracion”
purportedly unfolded the origin of “Ati-Atihan” and the Sto. Niño in Kalibo, then
who could prove its (Narracion) existence? This kind of question does not
attempt to blacken the memory of the deceased but to apprise Kalibonhons of
that previous mistake in perpetuating the story of Barter of Panay as historic in
relation to “Ati-Atihan” without verifying the reliability or authenticity of
the primary source and in unfaithfully transmitting the works of Fr. Gaspar de
San Agustin, OSA. Moreover, old generations of Kalibonhons who were born, lived
and died in Kalibo and even those who are still alive today would neither confirm
nor deny what the “Historia sang Santo Niño Cag Ate-Ate” stated about the Sto. Niño of Kalibo.
For the true-blooded, born and
bred, Kalibonhons, when they speak of the origin of the Sto. Niño and “Ati-Atihan”
which is an expression of devotion to the Sto. Niño, it is better left a mystery
just as the Childhood of Jesus remains a mystery.
In the absence of a written
record or since time immemorial, the Sto. Niño has served as an important religious-historical
part of Kalibonhons’ lives. During the celebration of the devotional feast to
the Sto. Niño, Kalibonhons show their culture and tradition. No matter how
chaotic the celebration seems to look like, Kalibonhons remain calm and
peaceful, focusing more on to their devotion to the Sto. Niño. Only a stranger
behaves otherwise.
Furthermore, the celebration of
the devotional feast to the Sto. Niño in Kalibo is one remarkable event to feature
in celebrating the 500 Years of Christianity in the Philippines. Kalibo has
played a major part in the new evangelization, and Kalibo Sto. Niño Ati-Atihan
Festival is a “panaad” (panata) to
the Sto. Niño, whereby devotees make a unique form of public worship. Unlike
others who perform their panata by making
some sacrifices (penitencia), “panaad”
in Kalibo is a live worship where dragging one ‘s feet (sadsad) expresses one’s
joy found in God’s only Son –Jesus, the Sto. Niño.
Even though the feast is given a
secular name (Ati-Atihan), the celebration is distinctive and memorable in the
sense that those who come to Kalibo as tourists, they go home as devotees of
the Sto. Niño. If the “Ati-Atihan” attracts tourists, it is the Sto. Niño who
makes those tourists devotees. Tourists do not just stand as spectators but
freely participate and join the “sadsad” in honor of the Sto. Niño.
On January 8, 2021, it was timely
for the celebration of the 500 Years of Christianity in the Philippines, Bishop
Jose Corazon T. Tala-oc blessed and declared open the sacred haven for the
devotees of the Sto. Niño of Kalibo. Instead of using one’s time in looking for
the history of the Sto. Niño of Kalibo, Bishop Tala-oc uses his time to make a
brand new start for the devotees to let the Sto. Niño continuously work in the
salvation history.
In festive mode, all Kalibonhons shout out loud, “Viva, kay Sr. Sto. Niño!”
By the way, this Kalibo Sto. Niño
Ati-Atihan Festival 2021 reveals one thing: there can still be a devotion to the
Sto. Niño without the celebration of the “Ati-Atihan”.
Note:
Credit to the owner of the photo. All the details here are public
knowledge. Some are directly transcribed from the sources to avoid error. Credits
to the following references:
o
Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas (1565-1615) by
Gaspar de San Agustin, OSA.
o
Diocese of Kalibo (1976-2001), The Vintage Years
o
Recuerdo (Souvenir Book published on the occasion
of the Sto. Niño Festival, January 16, 1994)
o Town of a Thousand by Roman A. de la Cruz, 1993
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