Obando Fertility Dance

Obando keeps a fiesta over three days in May, one for each of its patrons: San Pascual Baylon on the 17th, Santa Clara on the 18th and Nuestra Señora de Salambao on the 19th. The practice attached to it is the fertility dance - couples hoping for children, and people hoping for spouses, dance through the streets behind the images in a step-and-turn pattern to a chanted verse, in a procession that has run for centuries and is one of the more distinctive religious customs in the country. Its origin is usually explained as a Christianised survival of a pre-colonial ritual dance, and while the evidence for that specific claim is thin, the practice itself is old and unbroken. Salambao, the Marian image, is said to have been found in a fishing net in the river, which is why the town's fishing identity runs through the fiesta. Obando is an hour from Manila and the fiesta days are the only time visitors go.

What you actually see

• The dancing procession - couples stepping behind the images.
• The three patrons - Pascual, Clara and Salambao on successive days.
• The chanted verse - the sung refrain that carries the dance.
• The fishing town - Obando's river and its Salambao story.

When to go

17 to 19 May. The 19th, for Nuestra Señora de Salambao, is the largest day. Arrive in the morning; roads into the town close.

Honest expectations

It is a devotional practice with real hopes attached - the couples dancing are not performing for cameras. Crowds are heavy on the main day and Obando's roads are narrow. It is hot in May.

Nearby

Malolos and Bulacan's revolutionary sites are north; Metro Manila is an hour south.