Cabatuan Festivals and Events

The town celebrates three main holidays: the Cabatuan Town Fiesta on September 10, as well as the Tinuom Festival that culminates the town fiesta and the strictly observed Lenten procession during Holy Week.

Tinuom Festival

The Tinuom Festival is a celebration of the town’s history and its popularly craved delicacy, tinuom made of native chicken souped with spices – tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, and lemon grass and wrapped in banana leaves. This festival is one of the highlights of the 10-day fiesta celebration of the municipality and is a colorful explosion of music and dances patterned from Iloilo’s Kasadyahan Festival. There are six (6) competing groups (called tribes or “tribu” in the local dialect) composed of students from six secondary schools in Cabatuan. The groups are judged according to creativity, originality, costume, and choreography, among others. The winning group is the town’s official representative to the Kasadyahan Festival in Iloilo City where the town has been actively participating in. This year, Tribu Ilahas from Tiring National High School, winner of the 2007 Tinuom Festival placed third in the Kadayahan Competition.

Holy Week

Cabatuan is also known to have the most wooden and porcelain statues being showcased on Lenten processions (a religious parade evident in almost all parishes in the Philippines during Holy Week). The most popular set of these figures is the wooden Last Supper.

In the morning of Good Friday, the statue of the Nazareno together with thousands of Cabatuananons and tourists alike follow a procession locally called Via Crucis from the Church to the Balic Hill pausing on the 14 Stations of the Cross erected along the path.

In the afternoon, on the other hand, another procession is held after the Good Friday Mass around the poblacion where the said wooden and porcelain statues embellished with fresh flowers, royal cloths and personalized lighting are paraded. They pass by the Stations of the Cross creatively displayed along in life-size carvings and effigies locally called Kapiya built out of indigenous materials native to the barangays assigned to the specific station. This unique display garnered recognition in Western Visayas and consequently haul tourists as well. Pasyon Singing by barangay folks accompanying their respective Kapiya follows the procession.

Lastly, the Dampug culminates the Holy Week. It is the reenactment of the angel’s proclamation of Christ’s resurrection and his meeting with Mary. Every year, a child of an illustrious family in town is held as “Dampug” or the proclaiming angel and a flamboyant stage, usually with cavern motif, is erected in the town plaza to serve as backdrop for the early dawn presentation. It is still very much respected by the townspeople today.