Crowd Drawing Celebration Of Filipino Fiesta Seen In Stamps

Four colorful comic-style postage stamps featuring popular Filipino Fiestas has been released by the Philippine Postal Corporation (PHLPost) to highlight the grandest celebration of Philippine Fiesta in the country.

Traditionally, it is a sort of merrymaking and thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest and to ensure good life ahead.

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.

The Sinulog Festival which is celebrated every 3rd week of January in Cebu City. 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 is the Panagbenga, 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.

The third, is the Pahiyas 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.

The fourth stamp display 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.

PHLPost commissioned security printer Amstar Co. to print 101,000 copies of the stamps, sold at P15 each. The stamps were designed by PhlPost creative Artist Rodine Teodoro.

The Fiestas in the Philippines stamps and official first day cover are now available at the Post Shop, Central Post Office, Door 203, Liwasang Bonifacio, Manila and area post offices nationwide. For inquiries, please call 527-01-08 or 527-01-32.