Ati-atihan Festival - Mother of all Philippine festivals and fiestas!

Ati-atihan Festival, also known as the Filipino Mardi Gras, is an annual festival which is held in the third week of January every year in Kalibo, Aklan Panay Island. It is considered the mother of all Philippine festivals and fiestas. This week-long festival is celebrated with much enthusiasm and fanfare. It is the most visited festivals in the Philippines. Thousands of tourists also come to see the festival annually. In fact, this exciting festival should not be missed by anyone. There are several travel companies that provide business class discounts to Manila for those who want to see the festivities. You can buy business class tickets to Manila and travel by cheap business class flights to Manila in comfort and style to take part in the festival.

The Ati-atihan Festival begins this week and will culminate on January 16, 2011. Originally a pagan ritual, the Ati-Atihan Festival is believed to have started in the 13th century. The festival is a celebration of two historical events that took place during the period. To know more about the festivities, you need to immediately book business class seats to Manila and catch the earliest business class flights to Manila without losing any more time or else you’ll just regret missing the festival itself.

First, the festival initially started to celebrate the landing of the 10 Malay chieftains called Datus on their boats or Balangays from Borneo on Panay Island. The Ati people, the tribes of Panay Island worked a pact with the Datus and sold them pieces of land for them to settle in. However, nowadays the festival is celebrated more as a religious feast in honor of Santo Niño (Infant Jesus). The feast is said to have started in 1750 when Fray Andres de Aguirre, a Basque companion priest of Fray Andres Urdaneta and explorer Miguel Lopez de Legaspi baptized in one day 1,000 inhabitants of the town and surrounding settlements in the place. This eventful day was celebrated with the beating of the drums of Aklan and coincided with the existing Ati-Atihan feast.

Why not purchase business tickets to Manila and fly cheap business class to Manila along with your family to immerse yourselves in the Ati-Atihan festivities? It would be just a real fun and joy when you travel business class to Manila. When you reach here, you’ll see religious fervor all around with devotees taking to the streets and participating in the street dancing, novena and masses or fall in line at the century-old Kalibo Cathedral just to let their bodies be massaged or rubbed with the image of Sto. Niño. The native dance competitions pitched to the rhythmic and mesmerizing drumbeats that run nonstop for several days is the main attraction of the festival. The colourful parade with dancing tribal troupes with their mouth painted voicing the slogan - Puera pasma! Hala Bira! Viva Santo Nino will be a real treat for the tourists who arrive by business class airlines to Manila to see the festival.