The Story Behind the Ibajay Ati-ati Festival
By Forwarded by Felimar Blanco/Houston, TX
siagnon@hotmail.com

Ibajay is composed of two Catholic parishes - that of St. Peter and of Sta. Rita of Cascia. Of the two parishes St. Peter is the biggest.

The parish of St. Peter celebrates two feasts, the feast of St Peter, the parish religious feast and that of the Holy Child, the town or municipal feast. Of which, the latter is the biggest.)

The celebration of the feast of the Holy Child (Sto Nino) as it relates to the ati-ati celebration goes back some 350 years ago when Christianity was just then starting to flourish in the Philippines. The term "ati" here is just a make believe “ati” – because people blacken themselves with ashes purposely for the occasion.

The real “ati” refers to the "negritos" or "aetas", ingenuous small people who are the country’s aborigines. They are nomads who live among the mountains and hillsides of Panay, a major island in central Philippines. They have nothing to do behind this celebration, contrary to what some “historians” claimed.

Legend has it, that the image/icon (sculptured some 350 years ago) of the Holy Child occasionally disappears, as late as the 1950’s, from the parish church altar only to be found later in the school ground nearby or grassy park of the town. Prior to the WWII, the community has been venerating the Holy Child by parading the said image around a block or two and back to church.

Later, with town officials on lead, they did the same the old way, i.e., as to please Holy Child they paraded the image through the entire length and breadth of the town; they prayed, fasted, and humbled themselves in sack clothe and ashes as what Nineveh did in the story of Jonah. Since then the practice is carried on.

Ibajay Ati-ati celebration is on 4th week of January ending on the 4th Sunday of the said month.

o-oo-o0o-oo-o
In God We Trust