HIGANTES MORIONES OF GASAN
(Photo: Credit to the owner)
The Higantes of Gasan first appeared during the 70s and 80s, every first Sunday of January or during the celebration of the Three Kings and New Year. The Gasan Higantes stood about ten feet tall with bodies made of bamboo as skeleton and draped in wide, colorful linen as dresses. These lanky figures often came in three, representing a man, a woman and a child. Their faces were papier mache. They visited houses in the poblacion and danced in front of each family they visited. As a reward, the townspeople handed them money, food or any token gift.
Different from the Higantes of Angono in Rizal where the practice is more popular, the origin and advent of the Gasan Higantes are unknown. Today, this tradition is no longer practiced.
In the late 2000s however, the municipality of Gasan paraded Higantes Moriones - a rare combination of the tradition of Higantes and Moriones Festival.
The Moriones Festival is now celebrated in the whole province of Marinduque during Lent and recognized as a major tourist attraction in the country. The festival first attained immense popularity in the early 70s when Gasan Mayor Ruben Mendoza invited tourists and the media to the town. It was the late mayor who started holding a contest for the best morion costume to encourage people to join the festivity. Thus began morions with Roman centurion outfit, far detached from the original morion costume made of carved wooden mask with tinsel flowers, a funny or happy demeanor and wearing table cloth or curtains as cape or cloak. They had a kalutang (wooden xylophone) in hand, instead of a wooden warrior’s sword.
The “Pugutan” (The beheading of Roman centurion Longinus) was the peak of the week-long event. The Pugutan stageplay or sinakulo was based on the script written by renowned writer Celso Al Carunungan.
The Higantes Moriones has now become a part of the modern-day Moriones Festival, a tradition steeped with local art and culture, folk lore and religious practice.
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