Filipino Fiestas Highlight In Postage Stamps

The Philippine Postal Corporation (PHLPost) has released special stamps that highlight the grandest celebration of Filipino Fiestas popularly celebrated in every town and province all over the country.

Fiesta in the Philippines is part of the Filipino culture. Activities are being held in churches, usually a feast in honor of its patron saint, where people are gathered to celebrate with a street parade, procession and other colorful festivities which attract people from all walks of life to visit the town or barrio.

Fiestas are traditional merrymaking and thanksgiving event for a bountiful harvest and to ensure good life ahead.

According to PHLPost, the comic-style postage stamps feature four colorful illustrations of popular Filipino Fiestas.

The Sinulog Festival of Cebu City is celebrated every 3rd week of January. This Philippine fiesta in Visayas region celebrates Cebu’s patron saint, the Santo Niño (Child Christ). This week-long event is marked by processions, street dancing and parades.

The second stamp is the Panagbenga Festival, a month-long annual flower festival occurring in the summer capital of Baguio. The festival, held during the month of February, was created as a tribute to the city’s flowers and as a way to rise up from the devastation of the 1990 Luzon earthquake. The festival also includes street dancing, presented by dancers clad in flower-inspired costumes, inspired by the Bendian, an Ibaloi dance that came from the Cordillera region. The festival includes floats that are decorated with flowers.

Another stamp is the Pahiyas Festival which is being held every 15th of May. Farm families give thanks to San Isidro Labrador for a good harvest by decorating their houses with brightly colored rice wafers called kiping.

And the fourth stamp display is the Higantes (giant) Festival. From November 22 to 23 in Angono, Rizal, male devotees carry the image of San Clemente in a procession that features the “pahadores”, clad in colorful garb and wooden shoes, carrying boat paddles and higantes (giants) 10 feet tall papier mache puppets.

The Fiestas in the Philippines stamps and official first day cover are now available at the Post Shop of the Manila Central Post Office and in area post offices nationwide.

For inquiries, please call PHLPost at (02) 527-0108 or 527-0132. (PHLPOST/RJB/JEG/PIA-NCR)