Bacolod`s Delicacies

Kakanin, or Filipino native delicacies, are snacks usually made with or containing any or combination of coconut milk, rice flour, glutinous rice, cassava and sugar.
 Kakanin are usually prepared whenever there is a special occasion like fiesta, birthday, Christmas, anniversary or just enjoy a fun afternoon kakanin snack party with your family and friends. 

BIBINGKA or Rice Cake

BIKO

SUMAN IBUS

And a LOT more!

Bacolod best spot

Cathedral of San Sebastian was founded in April 27, 1876 by Bishop Mariano Cuartero but the cornerstone was laid and it was inaugurated in the January 20 in the year 1882. Now, referred to as the Bacolod Cathedral is located along the Rizal Street across the Bacolod City Public Plaza. The structure of cathedral is made up of coral stones and lime quarried of Guimaras Island and Palawan wood. Visitors of the cathedral will instantly notice the baroque architectural style as the pillar, walls; foundations of the church are coral stones. 

The statue of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Bacolod is there on one side of the façade while the resurrected Jesus Christ is there in the mid section of the façade. The statue of San Sabestian is there inside the church on the main altar. Other highlights of the church are the flag stand with the logo of Recoletos and the old Stations of the Cross made up of plaster of Paris.

The Capitol Park and Lagoon is a provincial park located in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, in Philippines. One of the features of the park is matching sculptures depicting a woman standing alongside a water buffalo and that of a man pulling another water buffalo. These sculptures are located at the northern and southern ends of the lagoon. These figures were executed by Italian sculpture Francesco Riccardo Monti who also did the sculptures of the Metropolitan Manila Theater and the University of the Philippines - Visayas Iloilo campus. Guillermo Tolentino also contributed as a sculptor of the figures.Popular activities at the park include jogging, aerobics, school dance rehearsals, promenading, Arnis and martial arts practice and feeding the tilapias of the lagoon. The main landmark in the park is the Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol building. It is the official seat of the Governor of the province. Different government offices of the province serving its thirteen cities and municipalities are also located in the vicinity of the park.

Bacolod City Tourist Attractions

The Bacolod Public Plaza is one of the notable landmarks of Bacolod City, the capital of Negros Occidental, Philippines. It is located in the heart of the downtown area, near the city hall and across from the San Sebastian Cathedral. The plaza is a trapezoidal park with a belt of trees around the periphery and a gazebo at the center. Scattered within the trees are four circular fountains. The plaza was constructed in 1927 as a place for recreation, political, spiritual and cultural activities. It is quite a popular site for outdoor picnics and concerts. The gazebo is often used to house a bandstand and inscribed along the sides of the roof are the names of Western classical music composers Beethoven, Wagner, Haydn, and Mozart.

Hofilena Ancestral House is a great place to visit for watching the finest and the rarest art collections in Philippines. This is also a great place to visit for antiques that belong to principal families of Silay such as Hofilena. The house appears as an ordinary house at the entrance but visitors will get stunned by observing the skills of Filipinos when entered into the house. 

Hofilena House houses collections of paintings by renowned artists such as Juan Luna, Felix Hidalgo, Jose Rizal and several others. Now the house is owned by Ramon Hofilena and is considered as one of Silay's Public Museums. It is necessary to take prior appointment of Ramon who will take you to the journey of his historic, cultural arts and crafts collections.

Smiling Bacolod

The Masskara Festival (Hiligaynon: Pista sang MassKara, Filipino: Fiesta ng MassKara) is a festival held each year in Bacolod,Philippines, every third weekend of October nearest October 19, the city's Charter Inauguration Anniversary.

The Masskara Festival through the years gives the people of Negros, as well as local and foreign visitors, a chance to drink and be merry for 20 days. Originally designed to show the hardships of the people of Negros, the Masskara Festival has become a tool of escapism and a way to generate revenues for big business. It has indeed come a long way, and it is clear that the path turn away from the progressive goal.

Bacolod City is known for the popular Masskara Festival which takes place here Oct. 1-20. Local and foreign visitors get a chance to enjoy 20 days of merry making, beer drinking, dining and street dancing. On the weekend nearest to 19 October, the biggest party in Bacalod is scheduled to take place. Bacalod is the capital city of the country's sugar-producing province of Bocalenos.

The term Masskara is created from two words: mass, meaning crowd, and the Spanish word cara, for face; thus the double meaning for "mask" and "many faces". It was coined by Ely Santiago, a painter, cartoonist, and cultural artist, who devoted show in his art works the many faces of Negrenses overwhelmed with various crises.

A smiling mask, which is the symbol of the fiesta was conceived by the organizers to show the happy spirit of the Negrenses despite experiencing bad times in the sugar industry.

The Masskara festival was first envisioned in 1980 to add color and jollity to the Bcolod City's celebration of its Charter Day anniversary, on 19 October. The symbol of the festival - a smiling mask - was adopted by the organizers to dramatize the Negrenses happy spirit, in spite of periodic economic downturns in the sugar industry. 

Throughout the week, people from all over the Visayas, gather to the town plaza. They join Bacoleños in the non-stop round of festivities. Even if you don't feel like dancing and singing, the pig catching and pole climbing competitions are musts. Some are also trying their luck and testing their skills in mask-making contests, disco king and queen competitions, coconut-milk drinking to name a few.

Masks are the order of the day at the Masskara parade, as brightly-costumed men and women dance and strut in the streets. Their beaming faces are be-dimpled, smiling and laughing in molded clay or papier-mâché. Every group is represented: civic associations, commercial establishments, schools, even private and government organizations. They march out in excited crowd wearing their painted masks and elaborate costumes, all vying for prizes in judging that will be held in the afternoon. The festival also benefits Bacolod tourism not only because tourists flock the city during this time to join the merrymaking but also to buy the orchids and ornate handicrafts on sale.

HISTORY

The festival instills among the people the culture of escapism and obscurantism, where they have to accept and forget their sufferings caused by the exploitation and oppression of the landlords.

In this city, people are encouraged by the organizers, mostly big business and hacenderos (big landlords), to forget the economic hardships and depression which happen especially during tiempo muerto (dead season, or off sugar harvest-milling season). Bacolod is the capital city of Negros Occidental, known as the Sugar Bowl of the Philippines and is part of Western Visayas in central Philippines.

Originally and ironically, the masks reflected the people’s grief over the loss of their numerous loved ones when, in 1979, Negros Navigation’s luxury liner MS Don Juan crashed with a tanker. Five years before, there was a big drop in sugar production. The people of Negros suffered from the excess of sugar in the world market caused by the Caribbean sugar crisis and the introduction of sugar substitute like the High Fructose Corn Syrup in the United States. All these led to the holding of the first Masskara Festival in 1980. Santiago’s original proposal to hold annual parade using masks to capture the crisis in Negros, was changed by the local elite into street dancing and merry-making festival. This rich imagery of masks was used by the hacenderos and local politicians to hide the suffering of the Negrenses. From then on, Masskara Festival became one of the popular attractions in Negros, drawing thousands of people within and outside the country.

During this festival every October, the city’s public plaza is brought alive into a huge beer garden. There is also Masskara Street-dancing contests highlighting the whole festival. Masskara Festival was intended as an encouragement to all to fight back and to keep smiling despite the sugar problems, and highlighted that hope still existed. Since then, the smiling masks have become the city's symbol, thus earning its tag as the "City of Smile." This annual festival, which has become one of Philippines best known tourist attraction, has been earning raves both from local and foreign tourists. Masskara Festival has also been judged the most beautiful and colorful festival among the various contingents from other countries.

Smiling History of Bacolod City

Bacolod City, situated on the northwestern part of the island of Negros, is bounded by the Guimaras Strait on the west, the municipality of Talisay on the north, the municipality of Murcia on the east, and Bago City on the South.

     The City has land area of 156.1 kilometers. In 1970, it had a population of 187,300. It has a cool invigorating climate with abundant rainfall. The majority of the people speak Ilonggo and the rest speak Cebuano.
     Bacolod, the "Sugar City in the Philippines," is one of the most progressive and elite cities in the country. Along its highway, sugarcane plantation is a typical scene; coconut and rice are also grown. The people are engaged in livestock, fishing and pottery.
     Bacolod was derived from the Ilonggo word "bakolod" meaning "stonehill" since the settlement was founded in 1770 on a stonehill area, now the district of Granada and the former site of the Bacolod Murcia Milling Company. 
     Due to the Muslin raids in 1787, Bacolod was transferred towards the shorline. The old site was called "Da-an Banwa," meaning old  town.

    In 1894, by order of Governor General Claveria, through Negros Island Governor Manuel Valdeviseo Morquecho, Bacolod was made the capital of the Province of Negros. Bernardino de los Santos became the first gobernadorcillo and Fray Julian Gonzaga the first parish priest.
     The succes of the revolution in Bacolod was attributed to the low morale of the local Spanish detahcment-due to its defeat in Panay and Luzon and to the psychological warfare of Generals Aniceto Lacson and Juan Araneta. In 1897, a battle in Bacolod was fought in Matab-ang River. A year later, on November 5, 1898, the Negrense "Revolucionarios," armed with knives, bolos, spears, and rifle-like "nipa" stems, and pieces of "sawali" mounted in carts, captured the convento where Coronel de Castro y Cisneros, well-armed "casadores" and platoons of civil guards, surrendered. Two days later, on the 17th, most of the revolutionary army gathered together to establish a Provisional Junta and to confirm the elections of Aniceto Lacson as president, Juan Araneta as war-delegate, as well as the other officials.
     On March 1899, the American forces led by Colonel James G. Smith occupied Bacolod, the revolutionary capital of the Provisional Republic of Negros.
     Bacolod City was occupied by the Japanese forces on May 21, 1942. Three years after, it was liberated by the American forces on May 29, 1945.
     By virtue of Commonwealth Act No. 326, enacted by the National Assembly, the City of Bacolod was created on June 18, 1938.

Bacolod City

Bacolod is a city in the Philippines. It is the capital of the province of Negros Occidental. Having a total of 511,820 inhabitants as of 2010, it is the most populous city in the Western Visayas Region and the 17th most populous city of the Philippines.It is part of a metropolitan area called Metro Bacolod, which includes the cities of Silay and Talisay. It is notable for its famous MassKara Festival held during the 3rd week of October. Known for being a relatively friendly city, it bears the nickname "City of Smiles". Bacolod City recently ranked no. 1 in a survey byMoneySense Magazine as the "Best Place to Live in the Philippines". Bacolod ranks 3rd among the top ten "Next Wave Cities" of the Philippines for the best location for business process outsourcing and offshoring according to the 2010 report of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology.