Manila Events

Manila’s calendar is dominated by a religious event of a scale that is hard to convey.

Feast of the Black Nazarene — 9 January

A life-size dark wooden statue of Christ carrying the cross, brought from Mexico on a galleon in the seventeenth century and believed to have survived a fire aboard, is carried from Quiapo church through the streets of Manila on a carriage pulled by ropes. Several million barefoot devotees, dressed in maroon, attempt to touch the image or the ropes, in the belief that contact brings healing and the fulfilment of vows. The procession covers only a few kilometres but takes fifteen to twenty hours, moving at walking pace through a crowd so dense that people are lifted off their feet and passed overhead toward the carriage. Injuries and occasional deaths occur every year, mobile networks are shut down along the route, and the whole city stops. It is one of the largest annual religious gatherings on earth and is not in any sense a spectacle staged for visitors — watching respectfully from a distance is the appropriate way to see it.

Holy Week — March or April

Processions, Good Friday penitential rites, and a city that empties as people return to their home provinces.

Independence Day — 12 June

Parades and ceremonies at Rizal Park and along Roxas Boulevard.

Feast of the Santo Nino — third Sunday of January

Marked in Manila with processions and dancing, and with a much larger festival in Cebu; the image of the child Christ is the oldest Christian artefact in the Philippines.

Christmas — September to January

The longest Christmas season in the world begins when the months ending in ber start, with lanterns, carols and a great deal of food.