The Binalbal Festival is an annual festival

Festival

A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....

 held on the first of January in Tudela, Misamis Occidental

Tudela, Misamis Occidental

Municipality of Tudela is a fourth class municipality in the province of Misamis Occidental, Philippines. According to the 2007 census, it has a population of 25,113 people...

, Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 . It is a unique celebration of welcoming the new year for the townsfolk of Tudela

Tudela, Misamis Occidental

Municipality of Tudela is a fourth class municipality in the province of Misamis Occidental, Philippines. According to the 2007 census, it has a population of 25,113 people...

.

Participants are disguised through the use of masks shaped like demons which allow them full freedom of inhibition during the new year celebration.
In the celebration, people or spectators wear masks and outfits that would represent their own definition of Balbal, from which the name of the festival derived.

Balbal from the local dialect, which is Cebuano

Cebuano language

Cebuano, referred to by most of its speakers as Bisaya , is an Austronesian language spoken in the Philippines by about 20 million people mostly in the Central Visayas. It is the most widely spoken of the languages within the so-named Bisayan subgroup and is closely related to other Filipino...

, refers to a supernatural genus of strange-looking lifeforms: imps, witches, ogres, and the likes of them. . Very much like a giant Halloween costume party, where many revelers are clad in very gory costumes.

Origin

It was started only when some Tudelanhon visit their neighbors during the new year wearing mask to disguise, then asking foods and delicacies left from the new year celebration. Then, it was the time of the administration of the late Mayor Antero Singidas that the festival was organized by the local government.