Higantes Festival, also known as the Feast of San Clemente, is celebrated every November 23 in the town of Angono, Rizal. This is a major festival in honor of San Clemente, the patron saint of fishermen. His image is carried by male devotees during a procession accompanied by "pahadores" (devotees dressed in colorful local costumes or fishermen's clothes, wearing wooden shoes and carrying boat paddles, fish nets, traps, etc.) and "higantes" (paper-mâché giants measuring 10-12 feet in height and 4-5 feet in diameter). This street event ends in a procession to Laguna de Bay until the image is brought back to its sanctuary. The Higantes Festival is part of a two-week long celebration of the Angono Town Fiesta. Activities include a Misa Cantada (a special sung mass), novena, song and dance contests, fried "itik" festival and cooking competition, a 5k Fun Run, on-the-spot painting contest, art exhibit, job fair, bingo and videoke challenge, and of course, the highlights of the festivities -- the Race of the Higantes and the Procession of the Pagoda. A procession is held throughout the town, with the images brought to the banks of the Laguna de Bay where they would be enshrined in a floating pagoda for a fluvial procession until the event concludes with the image of San Clemente returned to the church.
Did you know that:
Angono is a 1st class urban municipality in the province of Rizal and is Known as the "Arts Capital of the Philippines". Angono is the hometown of two national artists, Lucio San Pedro for music and Carlos "Botong" Francisco for the arts.
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