Libagon, Southern Leyte - People and Culture - Religion - Feasts

Feasts

The town celebrates its annual fiesta in honor of their patron saint, the Blessed Virgin Mary of The Immaculate Conception on December 8. She is also the principal patroness of the Philippines. Other main Catholic holy days, including the local feasts of barangays, are observed throughout the year.

Besides the main fiesta on the 8th of December, every 16 of July, rain or shine, Libagonians also celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. They have a commending devotion to Mother Mary and a firm belief in Mary's general aid and prayerful assistance. The day after the feast, the traditional Pangilis is held. . On the 17th (July), at the break of dawn, the sounding of a bugle early in the morning to awake people, or dayana in the dialect, is carried out as a custom observed through the years to start-off the Pangilis solemnization and festivity. . The former ermano-ermana hand over the holy image of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel to the home of the succeeding (h)ermano or (h)ermana mayor for the following year's fiesta in a procession joined by townsfolk of Libagon mostly from the poblacion. Before the Pangilis, devotees (Carmelitas or Carmelites) who pledge for one's support for the coming year's celebration are also enlisted. Then after the street parade, immediately begins a joyous street dancing that ends on or before midnight. This affair is usually lead by that year's chosen (with solicitation) or at times designated "King and Queen" of Pangilis. In recent celebrations, a Pangilis Idol is determined in a contest of talents usually in dancing dressed in their own imaginative, artistic, colorful and, at times, bizarre costumes.

Similarly, these two feasts feature the colorful karo (carriage) that carries the holy image of the Blessed Virgin Mary on a ceremonial procession after the novena and mass held on the evening before the feast day. Both the karo and the church's altar are usually adorned with creative floral arrangements.