Breaking News

Karakol Festival of Talisay, Batangas

Visit the Talisay page for all information on Talisay.

Here’s our story on the Karakol Festival of Talisay, Batangas. We went there February 8, 2011 to witness this festival for the first time.

We traveled all the way to Talisay, first, to witness the Karakol – a religious event held annually to commemorate San Guillermo – the patron saint of the town.

Karakol, as described by the locals is a “sayaw sa patron” (dance to the patron). The elders of Talisay would dance on the streets around town to show their devotion to San Guillermo. The karakol was originally participated by the elder people of Talisay. Later on, women federation from different barangays joined the senior citizens in this religious street dancing.

Karakol Festival of Talisay, BatangasThey have this “daang prusisyon”, or the way where the street dancers would go around. The karakol participants dance to folk and foreign novelty music. Talisay Councilor Eddie Panghulan even composed a Tagalog lyrics of the song Dayang-Dayang whose lines are all in praise of the patron saint and called it “Alay kay San Guillermo”.

Devotees from neighboring towns and even from Cavite have been joining the karakol in Talisay and treat it as their “panata”. There were around 20 groups representing different barangays and organizations of Talisay and non-Talisayeños wherein the largest group was composed of 60 members.

San Guillermo was told to be a son of a duke. He was a believed to be a spoiled brat who did harm to other people. Until he decided to live inside a cave, clad himself with metal wardrobe and there he had his repentance. He came out as a new person since then. The icon of San Guillermo shows a skull on top of a bible. The skull represents the death of his old self.

Last Updated: September 8, 2013

About Publisher

JR Cantos is the Publisher of WOWBatangas.com. Some of the articles here on the website have been contributed over the years, so please just email us at help (at) wowbatangas.com if you have any concerns. Salamat!

Check Also

Pera sa Plastik | Kumikitang kabuhayan sa Lawa

Taal lakeshore resident  Airam Rodriguez, an entrepreneurial mother, air dries the hanged sheets of plastic bags that …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.