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 Señor San Agustin! Happy Fiesta!
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| Lechon, a favorite food for the fiesta |
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| The city's Saint Augustine Cathedral at dawn |
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| Miss Cagayan de Oro 2016 |
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