The Binalbal Festival is a unique celebration to welcome in the New Year for the townsfolk of Tudela, a town in Misamis Occidental in Mindanao, Philippines. On January 1st people come out wearing strange masks and outrageous outfits to represent what they think BALBAL look like. Balbal in the Bisaya language, are supernatural beings - ghosts, imps, fairy, witches, vampires, ogres if you like, so this celebration is something like Halloween on New Year Day! Why they celebrate these beings on this day, I don't know and am not able to find out!
Mud People
Posting of recent pictures and videos of the Binalbal (derived from the word Balbal) Festival on Youtube, Flickr and other websites reminded me that I had witnessed this festival way back on the first day of 2004. Here are some of the photos I took then.
Painted Faces
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