Cebu Province: Home to a Myriad of Town Festivals

Cebu is known for its fun-loving, and sometimes happy-go-lucky, people. However, if you think Cebu only has the Sinulog Festival, then clearly you still know very little about the province. This is because Cebu has more than forty festivals celebrated in its many towns and municipalities at different times of the year. After all, Cebuanos love merry-making, dances, and, of course, food.
However, a lot of these festivals were born just recently. These festivals are in response to incumbent Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia’s call for each town in the province to hold an annual festival as a way of enriching Cebuano culture and promoting tourism.  In that, each town and municipality brainstormed and came up with their festivals that reflect their area’s culture, products or values.

Here are some of Cebu’s most popular town festivals:

1. Kadaugan sa Mactan, Lapu-Lapu City

The Kadaugan sa Mactan is probably the most famous of Cebu’s “minor” festivals. This is a yearly reenactment of the Battle of Mactan, which is known in world history as the battle that killed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in the hands of the native chieftain Lapu-lapu. These event honors local chieftain Lapu-Lapu, who stood up against the Spaniards when they landed on the shores of Mactan Island, now called Lapu-Lapu City, in 1521. This festival is a week-long affair, with the reenactment as the highlight. Usually, they get popular actors or celebrities to play the parts of Lapu-Lapu, his wife Bulakna, and Magellan.  One of the recent stars included boxing legend Manny Pacquiao and actor Dennis Trillo.  Other activities during this event include band concerts, a food fair, and a bazaar.

2. Lechon Festival, Talisay City

Lechon or roast pig is always a part of any special event or major gathering among Filipinos. No Filipino wedding, baptism, fiesta, and even birthday will ever be complete without this delicacy. And Cebu is known throughout the country as having the tastiest and most crispy-skinned lechon. When it is from Cebu, it is bound to be yummy. However, Cebuanos know that when it comes to lechon, the ones from Talisay City are the best, with golden brown and crackling skin and with tender, juicy and delicious meat. This is why on October 15 of each year, the feast of Talisay’s patron saint – Saint Teresa of Avila, the Talisaynons hold the Inasal (Cebuano term for lechon) Festival, where there is a good supply of lechon for everybody.

3. Kabkaban Festival, Carcar City

The Kabkaban Festival is the highlight of Carcar’s annual fiesta in honor of St. Catherine of Alexandria, who is the town’s patron saint. The Kabkaban Festival is celebrated with street dancing and gay and colorful parades. There is also a religious procession with carrozas (carriages) holding life-size statues of characters that make up Saint Catherine’s life and martyrdom.

4. Mantawi Festival, Mandaue City

The Mantawi Festival is celebrated in May of each year in the city of Mandaue. The festival’s name came from a kind of tree that grew abundantly on the shores of Cebu at the time the Spaniards came to visit the area in 1521. The festival is held to celebrate the founding of the historical Spanish settlement in Mandawe. The highlight of the Mantawi festival is a parade of street dancers and dioramas that showcase Mandaue’s history and culture. There are also food fests, floats, a trade fair, and some sporting events.

5. Kinsan Festival, Aloguinsan

The Kinsan Festival is held in the southern Cebu municipality of Aloguinsan every second Sunday of June, during the Kinsan season. Kinsan is the local term for a big, gray-colored fish believed to be abundant only in Aloguinsan waters. The festival features dances by colorfully clad contingents and showcasing original dance steps imitating the movement of the Kinsan fish.

Other noteworthy festivals in Cebu include:

* Bodbod Festival in Catmon

* Bonga Festival in Sibonga

* Caballo Festival in Compostela

* Camotes Cassava Festival in Tudela, Camotes Island

* Dinagat Bakasi Festival in Cordova

* Haladaya Festival in Daan Bantayan

* Kabanhawan Festival in Minglanilla

* Kabayo Festival in Mandaue City

* Kabuhian Festival in Ronda

* Karansa Festival in Danao City

* Kawayan Festival in Alegria

* Kuyayang Festival in Bogo City

* Palawod Festival in Bantayan, Bantayan Island

* Pitlagong Festival in Argao

* Sadsad Festival in Oslob

* Sarok Festival in Consolacion

* Semana Santa sa Bantayan, Bantayan, Bantayan Island

* Silmugi Festival in Borbon

* Siloy Festival in Alcoy

* Sinanggiyaw Festival in Dumanjug

* Soli-Soli Festival in San Francisco, Camotes Island

* Tagbo Festival in Poro, Camotes Island

* Tartanilla Festival in Cebu City

* Tostado Festival in Santander

Indeed, Cebu province is home to colorful festivals celebrated with high spirits and great excitement. Visitors can fill up a year’s calendar visiting various places and at the same time witnessing all these festivals.

Manny Pacquiao versus Joshua Clottey

Get yourself ready for this coming fight of Manny Pacman Pacquiao and joshua “the Grandmaster” Clottey this coming March 13, 2010 at Dallas Cowboy Stadium, Arlington Texas, USA. This fight will surely be great. However the question is, who will win this fight? Will pacquiao be finally defeated by Clottey? To answer these questions, we need to get to know first who Joshua Clottey is.

Name: Joshua Clottey
Alias: The Grandmaster, The Hitter
Birth Date: March 16, 1977
Birth Place: Accra, Ghana
Residence: Bronx, New york, USA
Nationality: Ghana
Age: 33
Height: 5′ 9″
Reach: 70″
Stance or Style: Orthodox
Weight category: Welterweight
Trained by: Kwame Asante
Manager:
Global ID: 9300
US ID: 040806

Strengths:
- Has an aggressive style
- good skills and movement
- has good punching power
- He is big and strong at 147 pounds
- he pressures his opponents and wears them down…
- tough and determined
- experienced against top opposition

Regional and World Titles

* International Boxing Federation Welterweight Title (2008-09)
* IBF Intercontinental Welterweight Title (2006)
* WBC Continental Americas Light Middleweight Title (2005)
* NABC Welterweight Title (2004)
* African Boxing Union Welterweight Title (2001)
* Ghanaian Light Welterweight Title (1995)

Amateur and Personal Background:
Clottey was born in Accra. He has three brothers and two sisters. He is the junior brother of Emmanuel Clottey. His father is working on the highway. He makes road and worked in construction. He was a soccer player and pushed all his sons into boxing. They started in Bukom. It’s the place in Accra where the fighters train. Azumah Nelson and Ike Quartey, also started in Bukom.

Joshua Cottley started boxing when he was six years old. He was also a soccer player before he became a boxer.

Clottey said “I had 49 amateur fights, with four losses. I reached the quarter-finals in the Commonwealth Games.”

He is single, but has one daughter. She is nine years old and lives in Ghana. Clottey is a Muslim, so he gave her daughter a Muslim name, Zeenat Clottey.

Joshua is a member of Ghana’s “Ga” tribe, which includes Azumah Nelson, Ike Quartey, Ben “Wonder” Tackie, and many of Ghana’s other top boxers…

Boxing News editor Claude Abrams visited Accra several years ago and reported: “Imagine an uneven, open concrete yard about 20 feet square, the floor crumbling in parts and enclosed on three sides, one by the outer wall of a house, the other two by a patched-together fence made of wood and corrugated iron sheets.

“When bare, there’s scant evidence that this is or has been the playground to generations of fighting men. There’s no roof to keep out the rain or hold back the sun, but how it comes alive when the warriors arrive. The floor becomes cluttered as boxers clamor for room, elbowing each other to throw their blows while children clamber onto the frail walls and perch wide-eyed, like pigeons on a rooftop. There are benches neatly arranged at the entrance, which are quickly filled to capacity. The village has arrived!

“This is Bukom, probably no greater than the area of three football pitches, situated a short drive from the Ghanian capital Accra, where the average life expectancy is around 50, the streets do not have names and the red and dusty roads are so uneven that car passengers would be advised to wear crash hats.

“Scores of young boys and girls in bare feet scramble and fill the dried, earthy streets. They, too, know how to shadow box, how to hold their hands high and to throw punches.

“Ike Quartey was once one of these smiling youngsters – skinny and half-clothed – before he became “The Bazooka”… [He was born] in a rickety structure of little consequence or value which hovers like a tree-house above a pathway on the way to the gym, but now it’s a landmark, a must for those perusing the “where to go and visit” guide of Bukom.

“This is a village so immersed in boxing that at any given time during the day there will be a fighter in training and the square will, for most ofthe year, be occupied by a ring.

“Ghanian fighters…essentially fight in the same patient, methodical manner, knowing when and how to strike. Emotionally, when competing, they appear cold, their eyes focused, their concentration unwavering, though their characters can be warm and almost gentle.

“It is a paradox of almost schizophrenic proportions, though Ghanians are, by nature, proud and polite and perform their tasks neatly, down to the woman in the street who will walk with perfect precision balancing a car battery on her head.

“Here lies an untapped fountain of boys and men who have declared a willingness to fight for survival…”

“Now you be the judge to who’s going to win this coming March 13, 2010. Better not miss the chance to watch them fight.”

Manny Pacquiao vs Miguel Cotto Upcoming Fight

This November 14, 2009 is the most awaited fight for this year!

Manny Pacquiao is aiming of winning this fight and become the first boxer to become a champion in seven different divisions.

He’s training very hard for this fight, considering the fact that Miguel Cotto is a very strong and fast fighter.

On the other hand, Miguel Cotto’s training was said to be relaxed and a lot says that Miguel Cotto has a lot of bad habbits during training. But this don’t make Miguel Cotto a weak fighter.

Miguel Cotto has put-up a big name on his fighting division winning battles against strong and fast fighters like Mosley.

But Cotto has a disadvantage in this upcoming fight. He will need to trim down his weight to as low as 143lbs from his normal 150+lbs weight. This will surely drain out a lot of energies from Cotto but could as well make him move much faster than ever.

Manny is a very good fighter now and his right hand is now as good as his left hand. This will be Manny’s best weapon for this fight if he could go near Cotto and beat him up with very strong punches. Cotto is a very strong fighter though and could tolerate a lot of hits. Cotto is also much taller than Pacquiao which makes him much harder to take down.

Pacquiao needs to work his way for this fight and for sure, Freddie Roach has a good strategy for this fight.

Even journalists and boxing experts can’t say who will win this fight.

But considering Pacquiao’s speed and new boxing skills, Miguel Cotto will surely be in a very tight position and easy winning for both players won’t be possible.

PLAYERS STATISTICS:

Manny Pacquiao (PACMAN)

Country: Philippines
Age: 30
Height: 5″ 6.5′
Reach: 67′
Record: 49 wins – 3 Losses – 2 Draws
KOs: 37

Miguel Cotto (JUNITO)

Country: Puerto Rico
Age: 28
Height: 5″ 7′
Reach: 67′
Record: 34 Wins – 1 Loss – 0 Draws
KOs: 27