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Whale Shark Festival a thanksgiving for its blessings to the people of Donsol  

The Apribada festival is a week-long fiesta celebration in the Bicol Region, south of Luzon, to commemorate the town's prosperity the previous year and to honor the whale shark known as the Butanding for the bountiful harvest and prosperity that it helps bring to Donsol. The celebration is scheduled for the fourth week of January, and the butanding festival, like any other fiesta event in the Philippines, aims to instill a century-long tradition in the minds of the young people of Donsol, Sorsogon. Something to tell as a story to be passed down to future generations as part of the municipality's culture.

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Highlights of Butanding Festival

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Donsol is well-known for its butanding (whale shark), which has been featured on numerous television shows and news outlets throughout the year, as well as on the Philippines' official tourism website. It has become popular with dive spots where you can interact with and view the whale shark, known as the Butanding by the locals. The Apribada Festival is a celebration of the rare marine mammal, the whale shark, and is distinguished by the construction of a makeshift Butanding.

 

 There are photos that tell the story of the Apribada Festival celebration, such as dancers dressed in whale shark suits and locals walking into a parade with various sizes of makeshift Butanding in the town plaza. Contests and municipal parades feature various versions of the iconic whale shark, one of the world's most endangered marine mammals, which is abundant in Donsol. Locals believe that the Butanding can still be found in the seas of Sorsogon and Donsol because the water is suitable for the whales. Despite being endangered due to the world's very limited population, the Donsol Seas are kept as a blessed sanctuary for various other marine populations, keeping the place a popular Philippine travel destination.

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The festival for the number one fruit of the Philippines

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The festival is celebrated around March 18-19 in Baco, Oriental Mindoro, where a grand presentation of different varieties of bananas in this festival like the Señorita, the Lacatan, and the Saba. The celebration highlights moving along the road and an agri-exchange reasonable to feature Davao del Norte as a “Banana Nation”. In addition, bananas are one of the top produced agricultural products in the Philippines. It is even called the most important fruit to the economy of the Philippines. It is also important both as a source of local and international revenues for farmers, and bananas is also a component for the Filipino’s daily diet.

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Pav-Vurulun “Afi” Festival: The Revival of the Ibanags

Festivals abound in the Philippines. Town fiestas are held to commemorate foundation days, patron saints, or a combination of the two. Festivals are sometimes celebrated to honor local history and culture, to market the community's products, or to appreciate a bountiful harvest. In this article, we'll look at one of the Philippines' most overlooked yet fun festivals—the Pav-Vurulun Afi Festival in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan.

 

Tuguegarao City is well-known for a wide range of distinctive products. There's carabao chicharon, milk candies, carabao's milk, peanut goods, and, of course, Tuguegarao's signature delicacy–the Pancit Batil Patung. With the Pav-Vurulun Festival, these products are united. This is a week-long celebration held every year from August 10th to the 17th in honor of St. Hyacinth. Pav-Vurulun denotes "coming together," which allows the people of the community to congregate and celebrate noteworthy events. This festival also shows off the Ybanag way of life through the competitions and activities that are held.

 

Festivals promote tourism and the economic, social, and cultural growth of the Philippines. But let us not just focus on its well-known varieties. Let’s explore every festival held in the Philippines that projects the culture of every Filipino.

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