The name Ati Atihan means ‘Make Believe Atis’. The origin of the festival dates back to the 13th century when few families escaped the town of Borneo and came to the Philippine island of Panay. The people residing in that region were known as the Ati and they gave the escaped families a place to stay. The immigrants stayed in the lowlands and the Ati people themselves lived in the mountains above.
After few years, due to a bad harvest in the highlands, the Ati people came down to seek help. The people staying there provided them with food and the Atis sang and danced in gratitude. This lead to the development of a deep kinship between the Atis and immigrants. This was followed up every year and the people of lowland started painting their faces black in honor of the arrival of the Ati people.
After the settlement of the Spainards in the Philippines, the leaders of all the three tribes came to an agreement that the festival will be celebrated with both the Christian and Non Christian elements.
Since then the festival has been celebrated in the third week of January, honoring Santo Nino in Kalibo, the island of Panay. People paint their faces in different colors and there is an exuberant display of parades, extravagant costumes and everything is colorful! People dance on the beats of the drums and there a festival fiesta during the last three days of this week long festival. There is a dancing ritual that goes on for hours together on the beats of drums and stones in the bottles.
In the carnival the major role is played by the costumes and the props used by the participants. There is a kaleidoscope of colours everywhere and people use brightly colored feathers to make their costumes look even more pompous and vibrant. There are certain competitions during the carnival as well. The winner of the entire carnival is declared in the masquerade ball, where everybody wears masks and dances.
So, for the purpose of making various costumes, you can use feathers in bulk and make your costume look extra beautiful. If you do not want to wear a costume made of feathers, then you can simply use the feathers as props in your dress. You can make colourful wings or a head dresser that is made out of feathers. The feathers can be used in their natural form, but in the carnival it is usually preferred to have feathers that are brightly hued and are eye catching. Not only this, even during the masquerade ball, you can use masks that are made of feathers and adorn yourself with the jewellery that is made of feathers like the ear rings, necklaces, bracelets etc.
For this purpose, you can order wholesale ostrich feathers, peacock feathers and pheasants feathers and various other type of natural feathers from Schuman Feathers. It is an online store where feathers of each and every variety in each and every colour is available for you to use in order to fulfill any purpose of yours that involves the use of feathers!
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