WHO says everyone wants to be fair-skinned?

Every second week of January, Kalibonhons and tourists paint their skins black to become part of the Ati-Atihan Festival. In our recent visit, my colleague Alex Villafania and I had the chance of getting our skin blackened and dress up like an “Ati.”

Dressing up like an Ati was not easy. As early as 4 o’clock in the morning, we braved the cold weather in Kalibo and went to Lucas, also known as “Tatay Oca” Cristobal’s house. Tatay Oca, the leader of the Morongga tribe, welcomed us in their home, where members of the tribe, mostly teenagers, were already eating breakfast.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

IT was like seeing an army of ants climbing up a colony – only imagine it to be chaotic, more than a few stepping on heads and shoulders in order to touch a moving target.

In a predominantly Catholic country, religious festivities such as this are commonplace but the Feast of the Black Nazarene definitely stands out in terms of scale. This year’s estimates put the number of attendees by the millions.

During this day, the image of the Black Nazarene is paraded from Quiapo Church around Manila’s city streets and back. This year, though, the mass was held instead at the Quirino Grandstand (fronting Luneta or Rizal Park), followed by a procession leading to Quiapo Church.

[Read the rest of this entry »]