Municipality of Passi and the Pintados de Passi Festival


photo by solidwastevisayas.org

Let’s HANGOUT in the City of Passi, Iloilo

“Pasi”- unhasked grain of Palay

The name Passi is a corruption of the local word “pasi” or unhusked grains of palay. Heard of the one about a group of Spanish explorers who came downstream using a unique flat boat known as “sciata” and anchored to a place known as Ansig, locate at the mouth of Lamunan River. An old woman winnowing and pounding palay was asked of the name of place, fearful of strangers, she got excited and took the question to mean what she might be doing or what she might have inside her basket.

The Festival


photo source:dinagyang.com

Held every 2nd week of March, Pintados de Pasi Festival, in Passi City, central of Iloilo province, is perhaps one of the best known and established festivals of the Visayan region that have evolved through the years. It has played a big part in the lives of most Passinhons. It is the most popular spectator cultural event and the most popular for the community that has a large following. Theatrical-like street dancing performances are a celebrated part of the Pintados festivity that is characterized by heavy and aggressive body movements. Here, performers adorned in traditional body tattoo with elaborate geometrical designs in their body, including their arms, legs and torso dramatizes stories in which the towns’ ancestral beings laid down every feature of the area, especially, their way of life.

Pintados de Passi is a week long festival that starts with a Garden Show and Food Festival, the Pinta Lawas Contest, the Karosa Parada and Carabao-Painting Contest, Coronation Night of the Search for Bb. Pintados, Sinadya sa Suba, and the Tribes Competition. With this wealth of unique cultural and recreational events, Pintados de Pasi is surely one of the country’s top tourism festivals.

Article sources: Passi Beyond Time by Bombette G. Marin and passinhon.com