Panagbenga: Baguio Flower Festival 2012

Penagbenga Festival (English: Flower Festival) is a month-long annual flower festival occurring in Baguio, the summer capital of the Philippines. The term is of Malayo-Polynesian origin, meaning "season of blooming". The festival, held during the month of February, was created as a tribute to the city's flowers and as a way to rise up from the devastation of the 1990 Luzon earthquake. The festival includes floats that are decorated with flowers unlike those used in Pasadena's Rose Parade. The festival also includes street dancing, presented by dancers clad in flower-inspired costumes, that is inspired by the Bendian, an Ibaloi dance of celebration that came from the Cordillera region.

Aside from economic boosts from tourism, the festival also helped the younger generation of indigenous people to rediscover their culture's old traditions. The indigenous people was first wary with government-led tourism because of the threat that they will interfere or change their communities' rituals.

History

The Panagbenga Festival, formerly as the Baguio Flower Festival, was former in 1995 as the brainchild of Attorney Damaso Bangaoet Jr. of the John Hay Poro Point Development Corporation (JPDC) and Victor A. Lim of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA). Entries from the annual Camp John Nichol Sibug art contest gave its official logo: a spray of sunflowers. The festival was set in February to boost tourism as it was considered as a month on inactivity between the busy days of Christmas season and the Holy Week and the summer season.

In 1996, archivist and curator Ike Picpican suggested that the festival be renamed as Panagbenga, a Kankanaey term that means "a season of blossoming, a time for flowering".

Panagbenga: Baguio Flower Festival 2012 Major Highlights

February 1, 2012: Panagbenga Opening Parade 

February 1-March 4, 2012: Market Encounter

February 11, 2012: Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom

February 12, 2012: Handog ng Panagbenga sa Baguio

February 12, 2012: Fluvial Float Parade 

February 21, 2012: Chinese Spring Festival

February 25, 2012: Grand Street Dancing Parade

February 26, 2012: Grand Float Parade

February 27-March 2, 2012: Session Road in Bloom

March 2, 2012: Pony Boy's Day

March 4, 2012: Grand Fireworks Display

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panagbenga_Festival]
[Photo Courtesy of http://www.google.com.ph/search?q=panagbenga&hl=tl&sa=G&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENPH340&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=pjQiT5DJIO2QiAfkxKj6BA&ved=0CEgQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=923]

"MY LIFE'S UPDATE":

memorandum on outright deduction of absences and tardiness... BENECO sucks! attended ate Rose Ocaña's spinning class... ate dinner at SM City Baguio's Classic Savory with ate Rose and ate Grace Ocaña... at home, watched Survivor Philippines Celebrity Doubles Showdown, Dong Yi, Saksi (Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona's impeachment trial day 7)... Thank you Father God for today's blessings, Amen!