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Bacolod Masskara is the most popular festivity in
Bacolod City. It is celebrated on the third weekend of
October and ends on October 19, the city's charter day
anniversary. The celebration kicks off with food fairs,
mask-making contests, brass band competitions, beauty
and talent pageants, a windsurfing regatta, drinking and
eating contests, trade fairs and exhibits.
The
climax is a mardi-gras parade where revelers don
elaborate masks and costumes while dancing to frantic
Latin rhythms, Rio de Janeiro style. Bacolod City is
known as the "City of Smiles", and the Bacolod Masskara,
aptly called because of the sea of smiling faces, is the
Bacoleņos exuberant character of strong will and warm
heart.
The
festival started at the time when Bacolod felt the heavy
toll of poor financial activities.
Rather than give in to the burden, Bacolod met the
challenge headlong, with the gregarious and charming
people showing to one and all its ability to survive the
hard times. And triumph it did!
There is no cultural, historical
nor religious reason for this celebration. It simply an
expression of the Bacoleņos innate capacity for
goodness, happiness and beauty expressed in the sights,
sounds, color and rhythm of a people enjoying the might
and bounty of the Great Creator through the Bacolod
masskara festival.
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