IT is a clear day in Angono. The streets are filled with bystanders—residents and non-residents alike—who are eagerly waiting for the presence of something big. Looking above, the view of the sky is adorned by an assemblage of colorful banderitas. The sun slips in a little of its light upon these strips of color and a splendor is made visible to the eyes. These banderitas seem to be clapping, emitting a rustling sound that proclaims the arrival of beings bigger than us, but are amazingly like us. A foreign feeling comes and is met with an assured familiarity. The booming trumpet of the marching band brings us to an inevitable arrival. The higantes are upon us.
The Higantes Festival in Angono is a celebration of a town reeling in deep from its rich wellspring of art and religious history. Held every 23rd of November, it is a clever synthesis of the town’s artistry flavored by its Catholic ties. The festival is celebrated in honor of St. Clement, a martyred pope who is also the town’s patron saint. Angono is home to farmers subjected to Spanish masters that gave birth to this festival. The higante, in its enormous presence, is a caricature adeptly created by the people of Angono to portray their masters. It is a walking metaphor for the struggles of an oppressed class willing to use art as an effective tool to communicate with others.
Now, the festival gets bigger and bigger as the higantes remain, well, still huge. As they walk the streets of Angono, they still carry with them the messages that the early Filipinos conveyed creatively. Beneath the paper-mâché and the skeleton of wires is the Filipino still facing the not so impossible task of going beyond his stature, for we can always go beyond that.
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