Colorful and Magnificent Festivals in Cebu Part 12

MAGNIFICENT FESTIVALS

People in Cebu love to celebrate festivals or are fiesta-loving people. Cebu has one of the most colorful and world-renowned festivals in the Philippines and they celebrate it with excitement and high spirits. Cebu celebrates different festivals in different towns and cities. Cebu celebrate fiestas with religious rituals and dancing in the streets to the beat of the drums. Read More: http://www.etravelpilipinas.com/events_festivals/cebu_festival.htm

Utanon Festival

Photo from: http://cebufestivals.blogspot.com/2010/02/#.WY0uFemQxaQ

The Municipality of Dalaguete in Cebu celebrates its good harvest through dance and music every month of February. The town fiesta is celebrated annually in honor of its patron saint, San Guillermo, which is already its 305^th anniversary this 2016.

The main highlight is celebrated with street dancing and showdown competitions known as “Utanon Festival.”

Utanon is from the local term “utan” which means “vegetable” in English. The Municipality of Dalaguete is recognized as the “Vegetable Basket of Cebu”. Its highly valued crops and vegetables are the municipality’s major form of trade and Dalaguete’s major contribution to the local economy of the province.

The festival is a form of thanksgiving for all the blessings received by Dalaguetenon from San Guillermo. lt aims to promote the vegetable industry and gives emphasis on vegetable farming as a sustainable source of livelihood. The event also serves as a venue for Cebuanos to showcase their talents.

Utanon Festival is held during the annual celebration of Dalaguete’s Patron Saint San Guillermo de Aquitania every February 9-10. Read More: http://www.choosephilippines.com/do/festivals/4056/utanon-festival-dalaguete/

Queseo Festival

Photo from: https://twitter.com/cebugovph/status/758216985435975680

The queseo is a cheese delicacy made from carabao’s milk. The traditional method of making the delicacy is meticulous, but the final product is distinctively creamy. It is best paired with crackers, biscuits, or piping-hot pandesal. The queseo is the product highlighted by the Municipality of Compostela in their annual festival, the Queseo Festival.

The seven main dance steps showing the process of making the queseo are as follows:

Limpyo – showing the act of cleaning the breast part of the carabao
Puga sa Gatas – demonstrating the milking of the carabalo
Sa-an – showing the act of screening the milk with a mesh
Init kaldero – representing the heating of the cauldron with burned wood
Huwad suka – showing the act of pouring vinegar to heated milk and stirring
Hulma – demonstrating the molding of the cheese)
Putos – representing the wrapping of the cheese with banana leaf strips

Lapyahan Festival

Photo from: http://www.peanutbrowas.com/blog/experience-the-lapyahan-festival-of-san-remigio

Colorful props and dancers clad in equally colorful costumes would fill the San Remigio town every 16th of May for the Lapyahan Festival, one of the most awaited activities in relation to the annual fiesta.

The whole town would practically burst with energy as participants from various elementary and high schools converge to celebrate the fiesta in honor of San Juan Nepumoceno.

A long stretch of white sand beach in San Remigio, the longest in the whole Cebu province, is highlighted in this annual festival. The name of the festival itself, “Lapyahan,” is the Cebuano word for seashore or shoreline.

Dance steps in the festival show things related to the sea: balud which means waves, kinhas which means gleaning for seashells during low tide, ligo or langoy which is swimming, hoyohoy which refers to sea breeze, and pasalamat which is to give thanksgiving to heavens for the bounty of the sea.

The sea is so much a part of the lives of San Remigio residents, many of whom earn their living from fishing. Read More: http://sanremigio.gov.ph/listindex.asp?newsid=39&category=tourism&wfunc=viewarticle&rightpanel=yes&titlecap=Lapyahan%20Festival