Sto. Niño de Lezo

 

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 meaningt 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. On May 8, 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 Kalibo’s Sto. Niño.

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 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.

How about Lezo? Why do they celebrate the feast of the Sto. Niño too?

Lezo used to be a barrio (arabal) of Calibo before a decree was issued and promulgated to erect its parish. The decree was written in Spanish and freely translated as:

On this date I hereby issue this decree:

“After due inquiry, we deem it wise and necessary to erect as a new parish the town of Lezo, consequently separating that which is spiritual from the mother parish Calibo of the district of Capiz, for a sound administration of its temporalities with the consent of the Queen, as transcribed in the royal decree 14^th day of May of the past year. We therefore declare as we hereby decreed the separation and independence on that which is spiritual of the aforesaid town and we erect it as a Parish, in order to have a parish priest as provided by canon law and the Royal Patronage, its territorial boundaries as delineated by civil laws as agreed by the adjoining municipalities. Let this decree of erection be served the Parish Priest of Calibo and the first appointed Parish Priest of this new Parish of Lezo for their information and compliance. Let this decree be kept in the archives of the respective parishes. Informing you of the contents as formulated. God bless you all. Cebu 20^th of May 1867.”

(Sgd) Fr. Romualdo Obispo

When Fr. Alan G. Santa Maria became the Parish Priest of Lezo, he eventually rediscovered a remnant of devotion of the people of Lezo to the Sto. Niño while it was still part of the Mother Parish of Kalibo. Together with the Catholic faithful of Lezo, they renewed their devotion to the Sto. Niño -Sto. Niño de Lezo.

Note:

All the details here are said to be 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