Pasungay Festival
Ilo-ilo City
2nd Saturday of January
Held every second Saturday of January in San Joaquin, Iloilo in the Philippines, the Pasungay is the festival of bullfight, a feature during the San Joaquin fiesta and one of the thrilling festivals in Western Visayas, in honor of the Holy Child Jesus. The fighting bulls raised in town and the neighboring areas are handpicked by the bullfighting experts and pit against each other by weight category for this annual Bull Derby. This spectacular activity brings lavishnes to the celebration of San Joaquinís town fiesta where people in all walks of life gets to witness the ferocious display of power and skills of the bulls.Cheering spectators thunder over the hillside as raging bulls compete, testing their strength, vying to be the most prized bull.
Betting are also placed during the event which made Pasungay sensational and exciting as prominent people of the town try their luck.
Unlike the bullfight of Spain, the Pasungay is a fight between two bulls, until one tires out or gives up and run away. Instincts tell the fighting beasts when to give up thus nothing really is gory about this fighting event. Through rounds of elimination, the best bulls get to fight with each other as the most exciting clash of which the fun-loving Ilongos expect to witness every year in this celebration of the bulls.
The Pasungay sa San Joaquin is the final part of a weeklong attraction of the townís Bayluhay Festival, reflecting the history of Panay of which the ancestor Aetas bartered to the datus of Malay in the 13th century. Celebration of the Bayluhay is carefully planned and series of rituals are solemly conducted as one goes through many facets of life.
During the celebration, the making of the biggest ìbandiî, a native delicacy of San Joaquin, is highlighted.
The horsefight is also one of the attractions during the Pasungay Festival. The victorious stallion gets his prize by having a mating session with the female horse.
The annual Pasungay is promoted primarily by the San Joaquin Mayor and other public officials, parish priest, and festival comittees who aim for progress and camaraderie for the future of San Joaquin.
Origin
It is said that once two raging bulls set loose by the herdsmen were witnessed by resting farmers fighting in the hillside of one of the inland barangay of the municipality and caught the fancy of townsfolks eventually becoming a popular entertainment in most of the barangay fiestas, the townís way of honoring the farmers who initiated this activity. Since then, bulls of good breed and physique are raised solely for the purpose of the preparation for the event where they will be pitted against other prized bulls of different barangays.
The Scoop
The Town of San Joaquin
San Joaquin is an immense town within the coastal area, and the last municipality of Iloilo Province. Known as the ìSeat of the Barter of Panayî, it is endowed with tourism potentials, offering a wide variety of beaches ideal for swimming, fishing and other water sports, and rich marine life suitable for vacation over the beach where coconut trees are sorrounding the area in a relaxed, and friendly atmosphere. Most beach locations are good targets for investors.
The heritage sites make unique contribution to the history of Spanish Colonization in the province. The San Joaquin Roman Catholic Church is one of a kind in the country and pictures the historic battle between Christians of Spain and Moors, in Tetuan, Morocco in 1859, and even expression of the wounded soldiers are precisely displayed on the facade of the church.
Built in coral rock in 1892, the San Joaquin Cemetery is well-known for its unique hexagonal shape otherwise known as the ìcampo santoî, stone windows of rose designs and a twenty-step staircase, reliving the peopleís lives of the past, in hardship, struggle, and ingenuity.
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