MGA WEIRDONG FIESTA NG MGA KATOLIKO,NASA BIBLIYA BA?

Pulilan Carabao Festival, Philippines

carabaoMany farmers in the Philippines rely on carabaos, also known as water buffalo. Throughout the year, the beasts plow, sweat, and toil in the fields, getting muddy, and receiving little in return for their efforts. However, each May, the town of Pulilan celebrates its favorite farmyard animals.

For two days, the animals are the center of attention. On Day One, farmers shave their carabaos, soften their skin with oil, apply perfume to them, and decorate them with paint and ribbons. In the afternoon, farmers lead the carabaos to the town square to participate in a parade and kneel for blessings before a church. On Day 2, the froo-froo stuff is out the window as the carabaos compete in a race.

Baby-Jumping Festival of Calacho, Spain

baby-jumpingIn celebration of the Catholic festival of Corpus Christi, grown men leap over newborns, with full parental consent. Donning scary, vaguely Elvis-like costumes and wielding whips and truncheons, the men attempt to "cleanse" the babies of evil. Evidently, recklessly leaping over them is the best way to achieve this.
The town has observed the strange practice (called El Colacho) since 1620, and any onlookers who seem to be in need of a quick exorcism are pulled into the event.







Fiesta de Santa Marta de Ribarteme
coffinThis unusual festival is for people who have come close to death but lived to talk about it. Bizarrely, they attend church in a coffin, borne aloft by members of their family. If you have no friends or family, you have to carry your own coffin into the church. Held in Las Nieves, a small town in Galicia near the border with Portugal, thousands of people fill the narrow streets on the day of Santa Maria to hear the sad and sometimes disturbing stories of the survivors. After the somber event, though, things start to turn fun, as fireworks and street food compete for the attention of participants.



Día de Muertos 
is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in other cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico where the day is a bank holiday. The celebration takes place on October 31, November 1 and November 2, in connection with the Christian triduum of HallowmasAll Hallows' EveAll Saints' Day and All Souls' Day.[1][2]Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called ofrendas, honoring the deceased using sugar skulls,marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts. They also leave possessions of the deceased. 
Scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztecfestival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl. The holiday has spread throughout the world. In Brazil Dia de Finados is a public holiday that many Brazilians celebrate by visiting cemeteries and churches. In Spain there are festivals and parades and, at the end of the day, people gather at cemeteries and pray for their dead loved ones. Similar observances occur elsewhere in Europe, and similarly themed celebrations appear in many Asian and African cultures.


St. John's Eve
(feast of St John), traditionally celebrated with bonfires (le feu de la Saint-Jean) that are reminiscent of Midsummer's pagan rituals, is a catholic festivity in celebration of Saint John the Baptist. It takes place on June 24, on Midsummer day (St John's day). In certain French towns, a tall bonfire is built by the inhabitants in order to be lit on St John's Day. In the Vosges region and in the Southern part of Meurthe-et-Moselle, this huge bonfire is named "chavande".




Goatthrow2Goat Tossing Festival

The Spanish certainly like their odd festivals. Every year on the fourth Sunday in January, the locals of a small town named Manganeses de la Polvorosa gather together for the goat tossing festival, in honor of St Vincent de Paul, their patron saint. The festival has been around for so long that no one knows when it started. It involves a young man who finds a goat in the village, ties it up, and takes it to the top of the local Church belfry. He then tosses the goat over the side and it falls 50 feet where it is (hopefully) caught by villagers holding up a sheet of tarpaulin. The village officials banned the event but it continues regardless. Various animal rights agencies have complained about it – though their complaints have also been ignored.


Halloween
"Halloween long antedates Christianity. History shows that the main celebrations of Halloween were purely Druidical [ancient Britain]. The Druids believed in the calling together of certain wicked souls on Halloween by Saman, lord of death. Upon the Druidic ceremonies were grafted some of the characteristics of the Roman festival in honor of Pomona [pagan Italian goddess of fruits and gardens] held about November 1st, in which nuts and apples, representing the winter store of fruits, played an important part."
And this became the Roman Catholic "All Hallows", or "Festival of All Saints," and was so passed on to a besotted world. The Encyclopedia Americana says--

"Halloween is associated in the popular imagination with the prevalence of supernatural influences, and is clearly a RELIC OF PAGAN TIMES."

Valentine's Day
Pagans in Rome celebrated the evening of February 14th and February 15th and as an idolatrous festival in honor of Lupercus "the hunter of wolves". It was not until the reign of Pope Gelasius that the holiday became a "Christian" custom. "As far back as 496, Pope Gelasius changed Lupercalia on February 15th to St. Valentine's Day on February 14th." The original Saint Valentine was Nimrod, on this day in February, Semiramis, the mother of Tammuz, was said to have been purified and to have appeared for the first time in public with her son as the original "mother and child."

Sinulog Festival 
is one of the grandest and most colourful festivals in the Philippines.  The fiesta is usually to honor the local Roman Catholic patron saint and pay homage to the barrio's namesake for good harvest and health. It is a mixture of both pagan and Catholic beliefs. It is held in honour of Santo Nino (the child Jesus). Devotees come in droves from all over the Philippines and world with the hope that their prayers, petitions and wishes would be granted. There is a solemn religious procession on the eve of the feast.

Ati atihan & Dinagyang Festival 
A yearly celebrated event, the Sto. Niño Ati-atihan festival is one of the most famous and celebrated festivites here in the Philippines. Celebrated every third sunday of January on the feast of the Holy Child - Sto. Niño. The Ati-Atihan was originally a pagan festival from this tribe practicing Animism, and their worshiping their anito god.Moriones 
is an annual festival held on Holy Week on the island of MarinduquePhilippines. The "Moriones" are men and women in costumes and masks replicating the garb of biblical Roman soldiers as interpreted by local folks. The Moriones or Moryonan tradition has inspired the creation of other festivals in the Philippines where cultural practices or folk history is turned into street festivals

Flores de Mayo
is held on the month of May. Literally meaning the flowers of May, this nationwide festival commemorates the search of Queen Elena of Constantinople, together with his son, Emperor Constantine, for the actual cross carried by Jesus. Among all the fiestas, this comes nearest to the format of a beauty pageant, as the parade consists of maidens escorted by young men under floral arches. In many areas, it is also considered a ritual for the coming of age of young ladies.

Kadayawan 
This festival gives thanks to the harvest of fruits and flowers as the waling – waling orchid blooms. Floats of all colors are bedecked with orchids and other flowers in the city’s grand parade. The Kadayawan draws its name from the friendly greeting “Madayaw”, derived from the Davao word “dayaw”, meaning good, valuable, superior or beautiful.

Pahiyas
 (hiyas meaning decoration) is celebrated every 15th of May in Lucban, in the Quezon province. Agricultural households give thanks to San Isidro Labrador (Saint Isidore the Laborer) for a bountiful harvest by decorating their houses with brightly colored rice wafers called kiping, along with fruits, vegetables, other produce, and also handicrafts. Each year, there are judges who decide which house looks the best and awards the family a prize. The kiping can be eaten grilled or fried after the judging.

Masskara Festival
 is held every third week of October in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, where people from all walks of life don their colorful masks as they participate in street dances. The festivities mark Bacolod City’s charter day.


Turumba Festival
derives from pre-Christian healing practices of Pakil priestesses, rife with folk religiosity and pagan ritual elements of animal sacrifices and trances. The priestesses healing abilities caught the ire and counterefforts of the Catholic friars and their eventual demise. The Turumba festival honors the Blessed Mother of Turumba with seven novenas that corresponds to the seven sorrows of the Blessed Mother. It is the longest celebrated festival in the country, lasting for seven months, starting the week before Holy Week and every 9th of the month for seven months.

SOURCES:

http://www.stuartxchange.com/Festivals.html

http://hubpages.com/hub/Top-10-Philippine-Festivals-that-Filipinos-Love

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