Negrense's Celebrating the "Masskara Festival"

Time flies so fast, weekend again. Oh dear halfway of October already next week, and I'm gonna be a year older again.And oh my fellow Negrense's are celebrating the "Masskara Festival" this month as well, and the highlights will start Friday night until the weekend. Bacolod is merry making, drinking and jamming by now as Electric night at the popular Lacson St.has started already or almost at the end now(lol). By the way here's the quick overview of the historic festival of Negrense;

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". 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.

Enjoy mga Negrense, this is our celebration!