Pintaflores Festival
The Pintaflores Festival is celebrated every November in the beautiful city of San Carlos, Negros Occidental. The grand event’s name intrigues many travelers.
Derived from the Spanish words “Pinta” (tattoos) and “Flores” (flowers), this event combines emotions and nature, which makes for a beautiful topic.
Pintaflores’ narrative revolves around the hardship and success of a princess who accepted the challenge of going to uncharted places. According to legend, Princess Nabingka, opted to go to a nearby island with members of her royal fraternity. That place is now San Carlos City.
Are you intrigued yet? In this post, we’ll talk about the beautiful festival of San Carlos City.
Pintaflores Festival History
This celebration dates back to the early years of San Carlos City. The narrative began during the Spanish colonial period a long time ago.
A Princess once journeyed from Cebu to a neighboring island known as San Carlos today. Princess Nabingka is her given name. Nabingkalan was the old name for San Carlos. The princess is well-known for her beauty and wit.
During the early 17th century, Princess Nabingka ruled over the neighborhood (Nabingkalan). When she was unwell, she sought the counsel of a local “babaylan” or folk healer, who recommended she instruct her people to cultivate flowers. Flowers did not endure long owing to the severe weather.
The babaylan then requests that the villagers paint flowers for her. They followed the advice of the babaylan. She recovered, and her folks cheered and danced when they heard the good news.
It quickly became a barrio tradition. As a result, attractive young girls in ball dresses represent Princess Nabingka as her people dance in floral outfits, some with floral paint all over their bodies.
This incredible story gave birth to a magnificent and colorful event that has become ingrained in the culture. This spectacular celebration provides insight into the city’s rich socioeconomic heritage and is a popular tourist attraction also.
Pintaflores Festival Description
The Pintaflores Festival sprang from the city’s quest for cultural identity and tradition. It’s a mash-up of their events: the Nabingkalan Tattoo Festival and the Dance of Flowers. The event’s centerpiece revolves around street dancing and the ritual competition.
During the festival, the vibrant colors of the procession, reflected by the paint and flowers, look magical. Though the presentation’s subject combines dark and light or good and evil, the performance becomes worth seeing.
Every November, shortly after lighting candles in remembrance of departed souls, the inhabitants of San Carlos City in Negros Occidentale celebrate as the city’s hallmark carnival takes over the streets.
The Pintaflores celebration, which mixes the beauty of flowers with the masculinity of tattoos, is a less-visited yet visually beautiful festival on Negros Island.
The people of San Carlos City wanted to create something remarkable in their community that would please everyone locally and internationally. The ritual competition and street dancing are the event’s highlights.
Colorful costumes, painted bodies of the dancers, and dazzling dance movements performed by their choreographer, accompanied by musical accompaniment, added to the excitement of the competition.
It includes rhythmic dances and dance dramas depicting the people’s thankfulness and joy, plentiful blessings, prosperity, life and death, and the triumph of good over evil. The dancers’ faces, arms, torso, and legs are painted with flowers as part of the Pintados custom to demonstrate appreciation for the people and their environment.
The dances are tragedies about life and death and the triumph of virtue over evil. These are thanksgiving praises to San Carlos Borromeo, the city’s patron saint.
The Search for Miss San Carlos City pageant adds glitz to the celebration. The pageant also highlights the beauty of Negrense ladies and the creativity of local designers through the participants’ colorful attire.
Pintaflores Festival Costume
There are two categories: the Open Invitational, in which towns and municipalities on Negros Island compete, and the Pinta Bata, in which primary schools compete. The street dance tournament concludes with a ritual/showdown in the San Carlos City Auditorium.
Street dancers dress up in ethnic-inspired clothes and have floral tattoos on their bodies. The participants dress up as flowers, plants, stems, roots, trees, princesses, priestesses, paper bags, and nature-worshipping folks.
The floral body tattoos resonate with pre-Spanish Negros tattooed Visayans. When the Spanish arrived on the island of Negros, they saw this unique indigenous practice of floral body tattooing. Then, they named it “Pintados de Flores,” from which the by-word Pintaflores comes.
The “Pintalawas” was another feature of the Pintaflores. The design incorporates animals, nature, and whatever else comes to mind. Then, the artist’s hand covered a contingent’s complete body with an outstanding pattern.
In addition, the dancers in ethnic-styled costumes do a dance routine with bright flowers painted creatively across their faces, arms, torso, and legs. Furthermore, they represent the people’s joyful appreciation for prosperity and numerous wins.
The people who have witnessed this colorful celebration will undoubtedly confirm that the costumes and synchronized movements of the participants entice them to return to Pintaflores Festival. Moreover, the beat of the drums and music come close.
Pintaflores Delicacies You Shouldn’t Miss
What is a festival without food?
There may not be much, but here are some of the delicacies that the people of San Carlos are proud of:
Pinamalhan nga Isda
Pinaisan, or in other terms Pinamalhan, means dry. So basically, this is a dried dish made with fish seasoned with salt, soy sauce, or even vinegar, and other seasonings.
Some may add dried salted anchovies or “bagoong” to boost flavor. It’s a mouthwatering dish usually paired with rice to kickstart your day!
Papisik nga Manok
Papisik nga manok is another delectable meal to try.
Cooks fill the chicken (native) with indigenous herbs and spices such as “tanglad” (lemongrass), “batwan” (Visayan sour fruit), and tomato― abundant ingredients in the area.
Then, the cooks marinate the chicken in rock salt and cook it in the “dabahan” (an earthen cooking pot made locally by the town’s potter) with the help of steam. The heat from the crackling then salt gently cooks the chicken while infusing flavor and scent into the meal.
Lumpia de Betswelas
This is a fried meal made with lumpia (dumpling) wrapper loaded with various veggies like carrots, cabbage, and green beans (betswelas).
Some also add shrimp and “tokwa” (tofu) to make it more appetizing. Known as finger food you can bring, you and your peers can enjoy munching while watching the festivities.
Valenciana
This dish is different from Arroz Valenciana and Paella Valenciana in terms of preparation.
A colorful dish to devour, cooks make this by combining plain rice with sticky rice and coloring it with turmeric. Then, they combine the rice mixture with chicken, pork, liver, raisins, coconut milk, shrimp, green peas, and sliced cooked eggs.
In short, cooks make a colorful and flavorful dish that takes effort but well worth it.
Sara-Sara nga Mais
Also known as corn coffee, sara-sara nga mais contains vitamins and minerals. It’s also a nutritious beverage made from a local variety of corn.
The dish features a natural, no-caffeine feature you can enjoy. Plus, it has no adverse effects when used daily. Moreover, you can enjoy the richness of it, either hot or cold.
In addition, the locals of San Carlos, especially the older people, prefer corn coffee to instant and flavored coffees.
Puto
Here comes a Negros Occidental rice cake delicacy. Using “tuba” as a leavening ingredient in local puto gives it a distinct flavor.
It also goes well with batchoy and dinuguan. You may vary the taste by topping it with shredded coconut, cheese, or ube (purple yam). These sound simple, but they’re extremely delicious!
You can also see vendors selling puto anywhere on the streets of San Carlos. You might want to stop by and have some of these to brighten up your day!
Baye-Baye
Baye-baye is a popular Negrosanon local food. It truly belongs to the Philippines’ top kakanin list. The treat contains young shredded coconut and corn patties and rice crushed into flakes (pinipig).
Then, cooks roast pinipig until golden brown. Next, they mash it into crumbs. Lastly, they blend it with coconut water, sugar, and young coconut shreds.
In addition, you can see the sweet, sticky, delicious delight all over the streets of San Carlos City. Moreover, you may want to try it with your coffee.
Ogoy Ogoy
Ogoy ogoy comes like a delightful biscuit. Cooks ingeniously spin and dust it with sugar crystals, giving it a milky, sweet, and delectable taste.
It’s one of Negros’ original local biscuit innovations. A perfect kutkutin (snack) and pasalubong for the entire family!
You can find these biscuits in many stores. They range from homemade quality down to export quality.
Peanut Brittle
In Negros, people know San Carlos as a producer and major supplier of peanut products. From roasted peanuts to tasty peanut butter, San Carlos features a lot of peanut products.
Here comes the most popular peanut delicacy: peanut brittle.
Peanut brittle features a smooth, flat candy (similar to toffee). It contains peanuts, sugar, corn syrup, and butter prepared on the stovetop. Moreover, it’s deliciously crunchy and sweet.
These crunchy sweets come in different shapes and sizes. You might want to choose the bigger ones, especially when you love peanuts.
Fun fact: you can buy them as pasalubong for your friends and loved ones, too.
Bandi
Bandi is a peanut-and-caramelized-sugar confection topped with sesame seeds. The peanuts and the sugar distinguish Bandi from the usual peanut brittle.
When cooks make Bandi, they roast them instead of overcooking them. Then, they combine the roasted peanuts with caramelized sugar.
Caramelized sugar comes from brown sugar. It features a slightly bitter taste, which complements the peanuts well. Adults enjoy bandi because of its bitter-like caramel flavor. A delightful treat for sweet teeth like us.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Pintaflores Festival is celebrated to commemorate the founding of San Carlos. During the event, dancers paint their bodies and wear extravagant flower costumes.
The dances feature tragedies about life and death, as well as the triumph of virtue over evil. These serve as thanksgiving praises to San Carlos Borromeo, the city’s patron saint
The Pintaflores Festival celebrated in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental. The festival is held on November 5th each year.
The festival in San Carlos, Pangasinan, differs from San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.
San Carlos, Pangasinan, holds a celebration known as the Mango-Bambo Festival. The event showcases San Carlos as a prime commercial location for bamboo furniture and the country’s leading producer of carabao mango in an annual week-long celebration held in April.
San Carlos City, Negros Occidental belongs to Region VI or the Western Visayas Region.
San Carlos City is known as a big sugar mill founded in 1912. The region produces sugar, vegetables, bananas, coconut, and root crops. It is one of the country’s leading food producers. Of course, people also know it for the iconic Pintaflores Festival.
an Carlos City was once known as “Nabingkalan”. This term came after Nabingka, a beautiful daughter of a chieftain of the Negrito population in the region that governed the barrio in the early 17th century.
She was well-known for her beauty, wisdom, and athletic abilities. Following her death, the community mourned for two years before naming the neighborhood Nabingkalan in her honor.
Conclusion
The Pintaflores Festival features stunning street dance competitions and flower dance rituals. In addition, the festival spectacle comes from multiple historical timelines and popular feedback loops. The event dances with the past – and imagining futures based on the myth.
In summary, Pintaflores Festival celebrates the city’s origin, geography, history, mythology, pagan ritual, and secular holidays. Trust us, you’ll enjoy this festival as much as you’ll enjoy the province’s other famous festival, the Masskara Festival.
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