Vigan City's 2nd Year Celebration of "Binatbatan Festival of the Arts: A Tapestry of Culture and Arts Woven by a Miracle" in the New Normal
"A tapestry of culture and arts woven by a miracle that saved the residents in 1882" Go back to where the festival came from and understand the miracle that saved the residents in December 1882. Viva Vigan Binatbatan Festival of the Arts celebrated from the last week of April to the first week of May was originally the Feast of the Natives that began on May 3, 1883, according to the writings of Damaso King, well-known Vigan historian . The festival began when an epidemic killed 934 residents in a month in 1882. The epidemic started Nov. 12 and ended Dec. 15. This happened 30 years after a chapel was built in 1852 in the cemetery of Vigan. The huge number of deaths in such short time alarmed the naturales or native inhabitants and mestizos or residents with Spanish blood that they asked Dr. Evaristo Abaya, the parish priest to request for the visit to Vigan of the Santo Cristo Milagroso of Sinait town. The Santo Mila...