Celebration

Every year from February 1st to March 7th, we celebrate Panagbenga Festival. The term Panagbenga is from a native language Kankanaey meaning season of blooming. The festival which is held during the month of February was created as a tribute to the city's flowers and as a way to rise up from the devastation of the 1990 Luzon earthquake. The festival is only celebrated in my hometown Baguio City, but other provinces of Philippines also have their specific festivals for the type of products they are producing.

There are a lot of activities that visitors can enjoy for the whole month of the festival. There is a very popular landscaping competition that showcases the true gardening talents of people of Baguio City. There is also a so called Road in Bloom where the whole Session Road is closed and people can enjoy the festivities and celebrate the colourful harvest festival with its abundance of cut flowers.

This festival also reflects cultural heritage of Baguio City and the Cordilleran Region. Cordilleran tribes, who are the natives of Cordillera, show their talent for arts and crafts and their native dance during the Panagbenga Festival as their way of informing the people how rich and abundant in cultures and traditions the people of Baguio City are.

Aside from boosting the economy through tourism, the festival also helps the younger generation of indigenous people to rediscover their culture’s old traditions, as well as motivate families and younger generations to go out together and simultaneously celebrate flowers, which not just give beauty to our surroundings but also have significant role in balancing the nature.