Ibalong Festival
Ibalong Festival is a colorful week-long event that draws both locals and foreigners to sample the culture and lifestyle of the people of Legazpi City.
The festival kicks off on the 25th of October through to the 31st of the same month. The annual festival’s name was inspired by the popular legend that regales visitors with tales of the city’s pre-colonial past.
History of Ibalong Festival
Unlike many of the festivals in the Philippines, the Ibalong Festival doesn’t take off religion or harvest. The festival is based on the Ibalong Epic, which tells of the story Ibalon who was joined by three legendary heroes, Batlog, Handyong, and Bantong reside. The three heroes rid the town of monsters, saved the people from a great flood, and laid the laws of the land.
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The epic is written in three parts, said to be transcribed by Padre Jose Castano, a Franciscan missionary. He left the transcription to a traveling poet named Cadundung. Today, there are only sixty stanzas in existence from a presumed 400. The epic ends abruptly, with the young Bantong killing a fierce half-man, half-beast creature.
Regardless of the abrupt ending and the missing parts of the epic, the festival is also held as a celebration of the locals’ tenacity. Legazpi city is prone to typhoons that regularly wreak devastation, yet it is simply amazing the kind of resilience t