Dinagsa Festival Is Bacolod’s Version of Ati-Atihan

DINAGSA FESTIVAL

Photo from: https://www.thehappytrip.com/2014/01/dinagsa-festival-2014/

The Dinagsa Festival is another “Ati-atihan Festival” of the Philippines. It is the Ati-atihan festival of Cadiz City, Negros Occidental.

Cadiz City is the gateway and premier center of agro-fishery resources of Negros Island. It is located at the northern area and is about 65 kilometers away from Bacolod, the capital city of Negros Occidental Province.

The festival began in 1972 and was first known as Cadiz City Ati-atihan Festival. It was only in 2002 that the festival was called “Dinagsa,” a name that is rightly Cadiznon. Read More: https://www.choosephilippines.com/do/festivals/3989/dinagsa-cadiznons-colorful-ati-atihan-festival

Photo from: http://www.visayandailystar.com/2016/February/01/index.htm

The Cadiz City Ati-Atihan Festival began in the year 1972. It was the brainchild of some of the members of the Samaria House Council of Cadiz City, a lay religious organization of the Catholic Church. The festival was a product of exigency, as some of the members of the Council were alarmed with the popular habit of the local residents to gamble in cockfights rather than offering homage to the City’s Patron, during the Feast of the Santo Niño. As if stricken by a flash of genius, the founding fathers of Cadiz Ati-Atihan thought of a way by which the feast of their Patron may be truly celebrated by acts of gratitude and praises, rather than by cockfights. These founding fathers, led by Msgr. Vicente Salgado, the then Parish Priest of the Sto. Niño Parish made history. It was then that the Cadiz City Ati-Atihan Festival came into being. Read More: http://bacolodnewsmedia.blogspot.com/2017/01/dinagsa-festival-2017-preparation.html

Photo from: https://goodlifeinbacolod.ph/featured/festivals-of-negros-telling-the-story-of-our-people/

Cadiz City’s Dinagsa Festival will start tomorrow, it’s one of the most anticipated festivals on the northern part of Negros Island because of the rhythmic beatings of the drums and merrymaking honoring the Senor Santo Nino.

One of the best and funniest parts of the festival is the “lamhitanay” which is that visitors, tourist or locals smother paints on each other’s faces or passersby. Prepare to get dirty and don’t be angry if you encounter this on the streets. Read More: https://negrosislandph.com/cadiz-dinagsa-festival-2018-schedule/