CITY OF SAN FERNANDO--A mixed crowd of devotees, people with disabilities and tourists will form part of the endless sea of participants in this year’s “Kuraldal Atlung Ari" this weekend at Sasmuan town.
Kuraldal Atlung Ari is an annual religious folk dance that has spawned hundreds of followers and believers through the years.
It takes place at the chapel of St. Lucy, with participants taking part in a series of impassioned dances.
Spanish chronicler Fray Gaspar de San Agustin, OSA wrote in Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas (1698) that St. Lucy had been venerated in Sasmuan "since long ago."
The occasion is one for merrymaking and revelry, where rich and savory food abound and goodwill flows as Sasmuaneños open their homes to families, friends, pilgrims and strangers.
January 6, in the Catholic calendar, is used to be known and commemorated as the Feast of the Three Kings, hence the term Atlung Ari (Three Kings), according to Tomen. Devotees from across Pampanga and neighboring provinces troop to this town, bringing with them hopes that an ardent wish, a long-awaited pregnancy and an immediate cure for disease would be granted with their participation in the festivity.
Redentor Sazon, 60, of Sta. Rita town has been trooping to the event for as long as he can remember. He said his participation is more of his personal way of expressing his thanks to God and asking for good health for his family in the coming year.
“The kuraldal is an event where people, young and old and the rich dance together as one to thank God and their patron saint and ask for further favors. It is more than the usual recently invented mutant festivals were people dance choreographed moves. This one is a religious festival as old as the town itself,” Sazon said.