by: PIA, Published in The Manila Bulletin
ROXAS CITY – Capiceños capped their annual Sinadya sa Halaran festivities here Saturday, with a spectacular grand parade of festivals and the 300th year celebration of the city fiesta in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, their patroness as the Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.
The parade of festivals showcased the culture and way of life of Capiceños whose people have reinforced intertown collaboration following the successful holding of the three-century-old city’s fiesta.
Judy Araneta Roxas, mother of Capiz Senator Manuel A. Roxas, Gov. Victor Tanco, and City Mayor Vicente Bermejo led the local officials of the province and city and the Capiceños in celebrating the province’s premier festival that started Dec. 5.
Sen. Roxas, who was in Manila, conveyed his greetings to fellow Capiceños on the occasion of what he called a showcase of “our unique treasure that is our culture.”
The event fused the Sinadya city fiesta celebration and Halaran cultural festival of the province, the seafood capital of the Philippines, to symbolize the unity of the Capiceños in their quest for progress and a better life.
Capiz produced one of the country’s presidents, Manuel Acuña Roxas, its most illustrious son. He is the grandfather of incumbent Senator Roxas.
Various cultural events, a beauty pageant, inauguration of development projects, sports competitions, indigenous games, exhibits of local products, food festival, musical shows, religious activities including special Church masses, a fluvial procession, fireworks display and other activities had filled every hour of the four-day celebration.
For the first time, a fashion show was held featuring formal and casual wear adorned and accented by Capiz shell, coconut shells and crochet by international fashion designer PJ Arañador, in tandem with events director Bombette Marin.
The show was a back-to-back event with the launching of the One-Town-One-Product (OTOP) project of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) here.
The provincial and city government also had a Kapisnon Products Exhibit organized by the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist headed by Sylvia De la Cruz.
So far, the Philippine National Police (PNP) has not reported any major untoward incident during the celebration. Capiz PNP Provincial Director Sr. Supt. Roberto Villanueva said the province enjoyed a generally peaceful celebration of the festival.
The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) blessed and inaugurated its new office building here last Friday with senior officials from its central office present.
The Home Mutual Development Fund (HDMF) or Pag-IBIG conducted a two-day activity featuring the sale of acquired housing assets and a seminar on how to avail of the agency’s housing program. A team from its regional office in Iloilo City headed by Assistant Regional Manager for Support Group Edith De la Cruz led the holding of the activity.
De la Cruz said it was meant to bring Pag-IBIG programs and services to its members and clients in the provinces for their convenience.
This year’s festival also marked the revival of the tribes’ competition. The event had drawn a large crowd during its finals, Dec. 7 at the city plaza, with 10 tribal groups from the province and city exhibiting their talents and skills, proving that it could be a potential tourist attraction. (PIA)
The 2007 Sinadya sa Halaran was the first for Tanco as governor and Bermejo as city mayor. The two top local officials hoped that next year’s celebration would be bigger and more colorful as an offshoot of this year’s successful festivities.
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By Bryan Mari Argos, The News Today
Roxas City, Capiz — Sinadya sa Halaran is as much an artistic and cultural celebration as it is a religious celebration. Every year, during the festival, artists emerge from their hiding places to showcase the richness and color of Capiznon tradition, arts and culture.
The parade of festivals is a grand testimony of how rich Capiznon culture is. In this parade, each municipality in the province of Capiz brings their festival to the city in the form of street dancing and pageantry. The richness of culture and tradition in the Province of Capiz and the City of Roxas is very evident in the people’s way of life. Aesthetic sense and style are the most common determinants of this affinity to arts and culture.
During the festival arts and culture explode in a rainbow of colors and flavors. The fluvial parade which happens on the Panay River is a reflection of the religiosity of the Capiznons as well as it is evidence of the creativity and the artistry of the people. The solemn procession begins with the public letting afloat hundreds, or even thousands of candles covered with colored cellophane, lighting up the water for the entrance of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception. The entourage of the main float of the icon is led by numerous colorful lanterns in the shape of huge fishes and other seafood to lay claim to the City’s title as the Seafood Capital of the Philippines and to show gratitude for the bounties of the sea. Upon the float’s docking at the bank of the river, the night sky explodes with a grand fireworks display. This is only one of the many activities that showcase Capiznon artistry and creativity.
The tribal competition which takes on seafood as its theme is also a colorful display of Capiznon talent. During this contest the streets fill up with energetic dancers in bright and innovative seafood costumes. Some come as mythical sea creatures and dance to the inviting rhythm of drums and bamboo instruments.
While Sinadya sa Halaran is one of those activities that puts Capiznon arts and culture up on a pedestal, you can simply look around you and see tangible evidence of the Capiznon artistic spirit. In the Panublion Museum one can marvel at the art work that the local artists group has created through the years. Paintings speak of pastoral scenes derived from everyday Capiznon life as well as creative and insightful renditions of issues and events. There are also sculptures and commercial art for sale that would definitely look appropriate in any metropolitan home.
The food in Capiz and Roxas City is also living evidence of Capiznon culture and tradition. Presentation may not be a big factor in Capiz culinary exploits but the flavor can make you come back for more. The secret to Capiznon cooking is particular attention given to the freshness of ingredients, as well as the harmonious mix of indigenous herbs and spices. The culinary experience in Capiz and Roxas City can be experienced during the Seafood Festival of Sinadya sa Halaran which runs every night for the entire duration of the festival. Here, local concessionaires sell their culinary masterpieces at the city plaza for all to savor and experience. Of course the best way to enjoy the country’s freshest seafood is by simply broiling methods, but come to the festival and you will be astonished at how simple broiling can bring out the best in the best seafood in the country.
All in all, Roxas City and Capiz can truly present you with a very exciting mix of culture, arts, and tradition. In this place myth, legend, tradition, culture, and history blend together to give you a multi-sensory experience of what the Seafood Capital of the Philippines and the Garden Center of Panay is truly like. Sinadya sa Halaran is the best time to experience this grand unison. The festive mood will definitely plunge you into a diverse pallet of culture, history, art, and tradition. Welcome to Sinadya sa Halaran.
Capiz News, Capiz Tourism, Capiz, News
Dubbed as the “Seafood Capital of the Philippines”, Capiz boasts of its 80-kilometer coastline and wide expanse of swampy land easily covered into fishponds. It holds one of the country’s richest fishing grounds and is a major contributor to the aquamarine industry.
Full of enchantment and mystery, Capiz claims to possess several legends and beliefs from which the name “Capiz” originated. More popular of these belief stories is that Capiz comes from the word “kapid” (which means twin). When the Spaniards settled in the place, they found it difficult to pronounce the word “kapid” thus giving birth to the name “Capiz”. Still , some old folks claim that Capiz got its name from “kapis”, a shell of the mollusk family that is very much abundant in the place.
Capiz is one of the provinces comprising the Western Visayas Region. It is composed of 16 municipalities, 1 city and 473 barangays. Based on the 2007 Census, it has a population of 701,664, with an average annual population growth of 0.97% (the second lowest in Region VI). Farming and fishing are the primary sources of income of the people. Capiz is blessed with very rich fishing grounds that makes it popular as the “Seafood Capital of the Philippines”. Apart from the surplus of agricultural products it generates each year, Capiz is also the country’s major supplier of prawns and milkfish.
Legends have it that the name of Capiz came from Akean and Kapid (meaning -”twin”) which Balingagan, Datu Bangkaya’s eldest son, named his “sakups” (territories) in honor of his twin daughters “Bulan and Adlaw” (Moon and Sun). Another version was based on the story that when the Spaniards came to settle it was the time when the wife of Bangkaya (head of the Aklan District then) gave birth to twin daughters. Twin in the local dialect is “kapid” but the settling Spaniards adopted the name of “Capiz” either due to their difficulty in pronouncing the “d” in “kapid” or as inadvertently miscommunicated to them by the natives. Still, some old folks believed that Capiz got it’s name from “Kapiz” or “pios” (a shell in the mollusk family) which were found in abundance at the time.
Centuries before the coming of the Spaniards to the country, Capiz was one of the early settlements of the Malays. It formed part of the Confederation of Madya-as after the purchase of Panay Island by the Bornean Datus from the Negrito King Marikudo.
Panay was divided into three major districts and the Aklan District that included Capiz was formally formed in 1223. Later, Datu Kalantiao, heading the Madya-as Confederation and as chief of Panay Island, promulgated the famous code of Kalantiao sometime in 1433. In the Spanish era, Capiz became the second Spanish settlement in the Philippines when the Spaniards, under the Miguel Lopez de Legaspi entered Pan-ay, a town of Capiz, in 1569. May 8, 1570 marked the conquest of Panay and consequently the district of Aklan under the leadership of Martin de Gotti. Capiz was created into a separate “encomienda” and later was organized into a politico-military province in 1716, emracing the neighboring islands of Romblon, Nuestra de Campo, Tablas and Sibuyan.
Capiz, was not the capital of the province but the town of Pan-ay. However, when the Spanish discovered that Capiz is near the sea and had better docking facilities for their galleons, they moved the capital to its present site.
The Americans established a civil government on April 15, 1901. Simplicio Jugo Vidal was appointed by William Howard Taft as first Municipal President. On May 12, 1951, the town of Capiz was converted into the City of Roxas, named after one of its’ most illustrious and famous son — the late First President of the Philippine Republic Manuel Acuña Roxas. In 1954, by virtue of the R.A. 1414, Aklan was separated from Capiz and made into a distinct province.
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