2014, November 22. Festival Masks of the Philippines
Litho Offset, Amstar Company, Inc.,
Perf. 14
Se-tenant Strips of 3, Miniature Sheets of 12; Souvenir
Sheets of One
10p
Moriones Festival by Jose Antonio A. Jayme
10p
Higantes Festival by Nemesio Miranda
10p
Pintados Festival by Donald Tapan
Miniature Sheets of 12
(10,000)
Souvenir Sheets of One
(5,000)
100p
Masskara Festival by Antonio M. Carranza Jr.
Layout Artist: Jose Antonio A. Jayme
First Day Covers: Manila
Festival Masks of the Philippines
Moriones Festival, Marinduque.
An annual festival held on Holy Week on the island of Marinduque in
the towns of Boac, Gasan, Santa Cruz, Buenavista and Mogpog,
Philippines. The origin of the festival is traced to Mogpog in 1870
when the parish priest of said town, Fr. Dionisio Santiago,
organized it for the first time. The "Moriones" are men and women in
costumes and masks replicating the garb of biblical Roman soldiers
as interpreted by local folks. The Moriones or Moryonan tradition
has inspired the creation of other festivals in the Philippines
where cultural practices or folk history is turned into street
festivals. The participants use morion masks to depict the Roman
soldiers and Syrian mercenaries within the story of the Passion of
the Christ. The mask was named after the 16th and 17th century
Morion helmet. The Moriones refers to the masked and costumed
penitents who march around the town for seven days searching for
Longinus, a Roman centurion who was blind in one eye. Morions roam
the streets in town from Holy Monday to Easter Sunday scaring the
kids, or engaging in antics or surprises to draw attention. The
island becomes one gigantic stage. It is almost certain that the
word "Moriones" was derived from "Moros".
Higantes Festival, Angono, Rizal.
It was said that the higantes (giants) started
during the Spanish colonial times, It was borrowed to Kampong of
Binangonan. when Angono was once a hacienda and ruled by Spanish
hacienderos The Guido. The Angono land tillers way of protesting
their struggle is by making giant effigy of their landlords whose
hands are usually high up on their waist. The body of the
traditional higante are made of bamboo and colorful cloth and its
faces of paper mache. The three old higantes of Angono consists of
the family of giants – the father, mother and child higante, they
traditionally add color and fun during the fiesta celebration. It
was in the late 80s when the late Angono artist Perdigon Vocalan
brought the idea of the Higantes Festival by going out of the
traditional family of giants and advocating having more higantes in
the fiesta by coordinating with the barangays of Angono to come up
with Higantes that
will represent their barangay.
Pintados Festival, Tacloban.
A cultural-religious celebration in Tacloban based on the
body-painting traditions of the ancient tattooed "pintados"
warriors. In 1986, the Pintados Foundation, Inc. was formed by the
people of Tacloban to organize this festival in honor of Sr. Santo
Niño. Years later, it was merged with the Kasadyaan Festival which
is always held on June 29. Pintados was the term used by Spanish
colonists to describe indigenous people with tattooed bodies
residing on the islands of Cebu, Bohol, and Leyte in the Biçayas
(Visayas) region of the Philippines. The word itself means
"painted," and was first used during the Spanish colonization of the
Philippines. The men are known for their tattoo art, which often
covers most of their bodies.
Masskara
Festival (Hiligaynon: Pista sang MassKara, Filipino: Fiesta
ng MassKara). A festival held each year in Bacolod,Philippines,
every third weekend of October nearest October 19, the city's
Charter anniversary. The festival first started in 1980 during a
period of crisis. The province relied on sugar cane as its primary
agricultural crop, and the price of sugar was at an all-time low due
to the introduction of sugar substitutes like high fructose corn
syrup in the United States. It was also a time of tragedy; on April
22, 1980 the inter-island vessel MV Don Juan carrying many Negrenses,
including those belonging to prominent families in Bacolod City,
collided with the tanker Tacloban City and sank. An estimated 700
lives were lost in the tragedy. In the midst of these tragic events,
the city's artists, local government and civic groups decided to
hold a festival of smiles, because the city at that time was also
known as the City of Smiles.