International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN: 2319-7064 ResearchGate Impact Factor (2018): 0.28 | SJIF (2019): 7.583 Volume 9 Issue 8, August 2020 www.ijsr.net Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY Ati-Atihan Festival as a Literary Event Nedy S. Coldovero 1 , Augusto Antonio A. Aguila 2 1, 2 The Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Espaῆa Boulevard, 1015, Manila, Philippines Abstract: Panay Island is one of the islands in the Philippines, where traditional events like festivals are treasured and celebrated. Philippine festivals have gradually responded to socio-cultural changes. Ati-Atihan Festival is regarded as the “Mother of Philippine Festivals.” It has been known for its devoutness, distinctiveness and unrestrained revelry. The study analyzed and interpreted the Ati- Atihan Festival of Kalibo, Aklan as a literary event semiotically in terms of narrative structure, signs and symbols deployed in its recreation of the Barter in Panay, its reference to Christianity, and the merging of the past with the present. This is a qualitative research employing the methods by Propp, Greimas, Peirce, and Barthes. The Ati-Atihan Festival is a blend of both a religious celebration and a historical commemoration. The present Ati-Atihan is tinged with religious fervour. With its Christian character, the previous Ati-Ati Festival was transformed into the feast of Sto. Niño with its coming and inclusion in the celebration, which paved way for the devotees of their religious zeal, their strong desire to yield healing power, physically and spiritually as they go to the place every year to join the festivities and profess their devotion. There is a union of historical spectacle, pagan revelry, religiosity, and modernity. Signs were found to have denotative and connotative meanings and were classified as iconic, indexical, or symbolic. Keywords: Ati-Atihan Festival, Narrative, Barter in Panay 1. Introduction Festival is the most expected every year for Filipinos. Ati- Atihan Festival is one of the many festivals in the Philippines and is a tribute in honor of Sto. Niño, whom Aklanons and even non-Aklanons believed as very miraculous, especially in times of drought and famine. Devotees express their faith by making a devotion or vow to come to the place every year for thanksgiving for the miracles and blessings they received for the whole year. For the tourists visiting the town, fiesta reflects the inhabitants’ optimistic nature. Even those who are facing problems in their day-to-day living set them aside and manage to participate in the preparations and actual festivities. The study aimed to analyze and interpret the Ati-Atihan Festival employing the methods by Propp, Greimas, Peirce, and Barthes for the narrative functions and structure of the narrative, and the signs and symbols deployed in its recreation of the Barter in Panay, its reference to the Christianization of Panay, and the merging of the past with the present. 2. Related Studies and Literature Literature survey was included and some relevant studies were reviewed. Inocian (2017) studied the Sinulog dance in Cebu. The analysis showed that the external factors change, which ignited the transition of the traditional Sinug dance to the contemporary Sinulog dance. He noted that organization and certain concerned individuals helped in the retention of the traditional Sinug dance and was oblirated for a progressive change to attract more tourists for commercialization and develop more business opportunities, while the contemporary Sinulog dance transcended to a new culture. Pison (2017) studied Dinagyang Festival focusing on the Dinagyang Ati dance competition and locate it amidst sacred and secular investments. It was found out that the Dinagyang’s flamboyance is a translation of movement, faith, socio-political, economic, and cultural interests. Each choreographic work is a translation constituting a constellation of values, beliefs, and aesthetic constructs that contribute to the afterlife of the Ilonggos’ faith. Bastiaens’s (2014) study demonstrated that semiotics as an approach is very essential in transmedia dynamics, explaining and illustrating the narrative of transmedia through a structural model development. According to Ming and Chuan (2018), festival image studies are based predominantly on tourist destination image research, which fails to fully reflect the unique connotations of the festival image concept. They analyzed differences in the interpretation of the same traditional folk festival (Boluo's Birthday Festival, Guangzhou) among different social groups (e.g., government, media, locals, tourists, and scholars), with consideration of the events, behaviors and languages of the festival. For them, to better understand and define festival image, it is necessary to comprehensively examine the symbolic process composed of the festival image itself and the different festival interpretations of social groups. 3. Research Design The study is a qualitative research. It adapted the narrative semiotics of Greimas combining semiotics and narratology. Semiotics, as noted by Duvall (1982), is the study of sign systems. The social and cultural phenomena were analyzed through the isolation of units of signification and examination of their structural interrelationship. Through narrative semiotics, studies on literature would be scientific and systematic. The structural linguistic of Saussure influenced Greimas, which the latter adopts the metaphor of linguistics. Propp's analysis on folklore's structure and Levi-Strauss's analysis on myth's structure also contributed and influenced Greimas. Paper ID: SR20806181508 DOI: 10.21275/SR20806181508 543