Katigbawan Festival — bohol-philippines.com

Overview

The Katigbawan Festival is Catigbian’s foundation-day celebration, and its name is a compound of three local words that between them describe the town: katigbi, a grass native to the area and the root of the name Catigbian; tigbaw, which in Visayan refers to caves, of which the municipality has many; and kabawan, Boholano for a place where carabaos are bred and sold.

That last element is not decorative. Catigbian is known in Region VII for having the largest livestock auction market in the region, and the festival was conceived by the local administration explicitly as a promotional instrument — a cheaper and faster way to put the town on the map than years of infrastructure spending. A separate reading of the name pushes further than the compound of local words: some accounts trace Katigbawan to Katagbawan, meaning a feast for human and spiritual satisfaction, which would make the festival’s name a statement of intent as much as a description of geography.

The pageant itself is credited to a specific decision rather than a gradual tradition. It is attributed to a former Catigbian mayor, Roberto Bertsal Salinas, who proposed dressing up the town’s carabaos as a tourism draw at a time when the municipality had almost nothing else to advertise beyond its farm produce and its cave country.

Find places to stay across Bohol

Timing

The festival is anchored to Catigbian’s Foundation Day on 17 June. It began as a three-day event and has since expanded into a week-long programme, so the practical window is the middle of June rather than a single date. Confirm the current-year schedule with the municipal tourism office.

June sits at the start of the wet season in Bohol, which for an inland upland town means afternoon rain is likely rather than certain. It is not a reason to avoid the dates.

The carabao pageant

The component that makes this festival unlike any other in the province — and, by local account, the first of its kind in the Philippines — is the carabao pageant. Carabaos from the different barangays are dressed in costume, made up, and paraded through town with their supporters, competing for a crown.

There is a talent portion. Some animals kneel on command, some walk on their knees, some are simply decorated well, and some do nothing but relieve themselves in front of the crowd, which is received as part of the entertainment.

The joke has a serious base. The carabao is the working animal of Boholano agriculture, used for tilling and for hauling heavy loads, and a national symbol of Filipino industry. Carabaos are honoured across the archipelago with parades, races, and processions — but Catigbian is the place that makes them beauty queens.

What Else to Expect

Street-dancing parade and competition
Agro fair, and a crafts fair displaying katigbi work
Carabao race and hog-catching
Motocross
A carambola derby of fighting cocks
Amateur singing contest and traditional games
The search for Miss Katigbawan, with the talent portion held on a separate date

Local Taste and Trade

The agro fair sits alongside the livestock trading Catigbian is already known for, and the produce on the tables reflects what the town actually grows: taro (gabi) and cassava (kamoteng kahoy) in quantities well beyond household use, much of it destined for the Tagbilaran markets on ordinary weeks. Farm stalls along the main road sell coconut vinegar and young coconut (buko) year-round, and festival week adds linugaw — a glutinous rice and ginger porridge more usually served on cold mornings — served to visiting relatives and barangay contingents between events. The crafts fair runs on the same local material as the town’s name: katigbi fibre, worked into baskets and mats by the same barangays parading their carabaos.

Location and Getting There

Catigbian is an interior municipality in west-central Bohol. Access is by bus or jeepney from Tagbilaran; there is no coastal route to it, so allow more time than the map distance suggests.

Practical Info

Timing: mid-June, around the 17th; the programme is now roughly a week
Entrance: street events are free; individual competitions may charge
Accommodation: essentially none in Catigbian — this is a day trip from Tagbilaran
The livestock auction market is worth seeing in its own right and operates outside festival week

Notes

Related: Catigbian’s caves, and the town’s bamboo and katigbi craft production.