The entire city of Iloilo and its nearby towns celebrated the recent Dinagyang, one of the countryas most popular festivals with much pomp, pageantry and grandeur, which Christmas or New Year festivities could hardly rival.

Almost everyone important, Ilonggos and non-Ilonggos were here to participate in the three-day revelry including President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, several senators and solons. But it was the top celebrities from two giant media networks competing neck to neck here, that drew a huge crowd of young, awestruck Ilonggo audience.

Dinagyang Festival is celebrated every fourth weekend of January to commemorate the Christianization of the natives and to honor the Holy Child Jesus. It is a very colorful parade coupled with a dramatization in honor of the patron Saint Sto. Niño as the object of dramatized offerings and prayers amidst the cracking of drums and shouts of "Viva Señor Santo Niño." The thundering of "Hala Bira" by the tribe members makes the celebration a lively one.