Marinduque | The Folk-Religious Moriones Festival

The Moriones festival is a weeklong senakulo in which the streets are overrun by masked locals engaging in mock sword fights and playing pranks on bystanders. Most of the towns in Marinduque participated on this occasion.

It started in 1807 when a parish priest of Mogpog named Padre Dionsio Santiago organized a play based on the story of Longinus. Longinus is a Roman centurion who assigned to execute Christ. His right eye was blind and miraculously restored by a drop of Christ blood. Longinus proclaimed his faith and he was chased around the town, captured and summarily beheaded.

Each municipality of Marinduque holds its own festival. Hundreds of Marinduqueno wear centurion masks and costumes and armed themselves with wooden swords, spears and shields.

The mask takes months to prepare and are kept secret from even close friends and family so that the Moriones true identity is never known.

How to get there:

Take bus bound for Lucena Quezon, one that with signboard "Dalahican Pier".

From the Dalahican Pier board a RORO ferry for Balanacan Pier in Marinduque.

Most jeepneys outside the ferry terminal are available that ply to the different towns of Marinduque