November 23, 2007 | Higantes Festival (Giants festival).

Tourists, Photographers & locals gather into this very colorful festival in Angono Rizal that dates back to the late 1800s.

The town celebrates the Higantes Festival which is characterized by huge paper mache effigies or “higantes”.

The “higante” tradition began last century, when Angono was a Spanish hacienda. The hacienda owners concerned about costs prohibited all celebrations except for one annual fiesta. The townspeople concerned about enjoyment decided to make the best of a bad situation. Using an art form brought from Mexico by Spanish priests, they created larger-than-life caricatures of their Spanish landlords. In typical Filipino fashion, the fiesta become in equal parts, a stunning spectacle and a tricky inside joke.

Angono has always been known as a haven for artists. The street where the festivities were held (near the old church) is in fact, lined with the wall paintings of Carlos "Botong" Francisco, National Artist for Painting.

Together with Roseanne, Aaron, Randy and Ninay (and eventually Pat) we became witnesses to the Angono tradition. We didnt expect to get soaked when we became embroiled in massive water fights that were part of the town's customs.

After the procession, we met up with other photographers (from PiPho and DPP) and ate at "Balaw-Balaw" restaurant, a local eating place which is (in)famous for serving exotic dishes like frogs, snakes(sawa) and the likes.