Bacolaodiat gears for Year of the Rat

BACOLOD City will celebrate the Chinese New Year on January 31 to February 2, 2020.

The celebration will be carried on with the staging of this year’s Bacolaodiat festival, replicating the celebration from Iloilo City.

The three-day celebration will give emphasis to the Year of the Rat which is believed to possess positive, confident, and adaptive characteristics.

The three-day celebration will kick-start with a dazzling grand motorcade and parade—a parade of Tsinoys in their Chinese-inspired costumes, city officials, students of Chinese schools, and the nightly fireworks display accompanied by official Bacolaodiat music in a symphony of lights and sparks.

It will also feature the Bacolaodiat Imperial Village which will showcase the Asian arts and crafts such as calligraphy, wishing tree, and palm reading, among others. And the Chopsticks Alley will offer Chinese food and cooking demos.

Now on its 15th year—crystal year—the festival embarks on new offerings.

Bacolaodiat Festival Chair Oddette Ong Gomez said, “for the first time since Bacolaodiat Festival started in 2006, the members of the Bacolaodiat Inc. decided to hold the highlights of the festival a week after the Chinese New Year’s day on January 25.”

“This is still within the 14-day Chinese Spring Festival and is one of the several Lunar New Years in Asia,” Gomez added.

On January 25, there will be the annual welcoming of the Chinese New Year but the festivities will be on January 31-February 2.

There will also be two festival sites: The North Capitol Road at the Tourism Strip in Lacson and Bacolod Government Center.

Bacolaodiat comes from “Baco” for Bacolod and “Lao Diat” a Fookien word for celebration.

For more information, you may contact the Bacolaodiat Secretariat at landline number (034) 213-9717, mobile numbers 0955-927-9186 and 0939-720-0370, or private message us on Facebook: Bacolaodiat Fest.