New Year's Day is celebrated with great vigour
and plenty of fireworks. On 9 January, the Black Nazarene
Procession, the largest procession in the country,
carries a life-size, blackwood statue of Jesus through
the streets of Quiapo.
The Filipino version of Mardi
Gras is the three-day Ati-Atihan, celebrated
in Kalibo on Panay in the third week in January. On
Good
Friday, there are many scourges throughout the country,
which have become popular attractions, especially those
at San Fernando and Antipolo, near Manila.
There are
more processions on Flores de Mayo in May,
this time in honour of the Virgin Mary. Independence
Day is
celebrated on 12 June with military parades. There
are local festivals taking place just about every
week of
the year somewhere in the Philippines.
January 9 - Quiapo Fiesta (Black Nazarene)
Quiapo, Manila
January 15 - Sto. Nio Fiest (Tondo)
Tondo, Manila
January 19 - Buling Buling ng Pandacan
Pandacan, Manila
February 3 - Liberation of Manila, Manila Chinese New
Year
Binondo, Manila
June 12 - Independence Day
Rizal Park, Manila
June 24 - Araw ng Maynila (Manila Day) Citywide Manila
Film Festival
November Feast of Nuestra Seora delos, Malate
Remedios, Manila
December Feast of Birhen ng Loreto
Sampaloc, Manila (second Sunday)