QUARTER 3 : WEEK 7-8 FESTIVAL DANCES TAKE THE QUIZ Why Festivals? Festival dances are cultural dances performed to the strong beats of percussion instruments by a community of people sharing the same culture usually done in honor of a Patron Saint or in thanksgiving of a bountiful harvest. Festival dances may be religious or secular in nature. But the best thing about festivals is that they add to the merry-making and festivities where they are celebrated, the reason why they are called festival dances after all. Festival dances draw the people’s culture by portraying the people’s ways of life through movements, costumes and implements inherent to their place of origin. Some of the famous festivals in the country include Sinulog of Cebu, Dinagyang of Iloilo, Ati-atihan of Kalibo, Aklan, Buyogan and Lingayan of Leyte, Bangus of Dagupan, T’nalak of South Cotabato, Masskara of Bacolod City, Bambanti of Isabela, and Kadayawan of Davao. Many others, especially from Luzon, are now paving