Saturday, August 27, 2016

Higalaay Festival 2016 (Cagayan de Oro Fiesta)

Cagayan de Oro City celebrates one of its most joyous occasions of the year, the feast day of Saint Augustine, the patron saint of the city. Locals simply call it the fiesta. Relative to the celebration, the city government launched the HIgalaay Festival 2016. The Higalaay or friendship in the local dialect is a series of almost a month-long core events that were conducted by the city and other groups or organization that culminated on August 28, 2016, the day of the fiesta. The events included Mindanao fashion summit, city-wide sale from the city’s big malls, kumbira, garden show and agri fair, coronation night of Miss CDO, marathon, carnival parade, cowboy show, Kahimunan regional trade fair, religious and fluvial processions, parade of floats and icons and bisperas fireworks displays and pyro musical festival.   
                                                                                         

Celebrating fiesta is a tradition of most Kagayanons. It is a time of reunion of members of families, a time when families treat relatives, friends and guests with sumptuous foods and drinks. The fiesta has been a traditionally religious event of the Roman Catholics who composed the city’s majority population. But through the years it has taken in some elements of secular cultural practices so that it has become an all inclusive occasion. Its events can be enjoyed and participated in by anyone regardless of his religious affiliation. For the city government and its people, the fiesta is also an instrument to showcase the city as one of the premiere tourist and investment destinations not only in Mindanao but also in the Philippines. Viva SeƱor San Agustin! Happy Fiesta!






Lechon, a favorite food for the fiesta
The city's Saint Augustine Cathedral at dawn



Miss Cagayan de Oro 2016








Higalaay Festival Street Parade 2016

On the morning of August 27, 2016, thousands of spectators watched the “Higalas Parade of Floats and Icons” which is one of the core events of the “Higalaay Festival 2016”. It is the day before the Feast of Saint Augustine. The parade was participated by different sectors of society such as business, school, government, military and others. The parade started at about 7 o’clock in the morning at the Pelaez Circle or rotunda, passed through the city’s main thoroughfares and ended at the Lim ket kai Center before 12 o’clock noon.