Celebrating Crabs in Samar

Santa Margarita, Samar celebrates the Alimango Festival on the 25th of July. The municipality, located in the western region of the Visayan province, is home to more than 2,000 hectares of crab farms that can harvest up to 3,000 crabs every month. The festival is celebrated to honor the alimango (giant mud crabs or mangrove crabs), which is the town’s major source of livelihood. It also serves as Santa Margarita’s form of thanksgiving for the year-round abundance of the crabs.

The festival is also the town's way of promoting their local crab industry, attracting consumers and buyers to appreciate their export-quality crustaceans. The celebration features dances, where locals don full crab suits with hand costumes that mimic pinching claws. They stage a ritual performance that depicts the courtship between a female alimango called “atabayi” and a male mud crab called “amamakhao.” The colorful production, accompanied by fast-paced rhythmic music and loud drums, displays how the crabs are captured in fishponds and mangrove areas using local woven cage traps called “bobo” and “bentol.”

The day usually starts with a thanksgiving mass and an opening program attended by officials. This is followed by a community lunch, one of the highlights of the entire Alimango Festival. Here, locals and guests gather around a long table laden with around 500 kilos of freshly cooked mud crabs.

Most of the crabs offered are simply steamed, allowing the natural sweetness of the crustacean to shine through. The succulent meat can also be dipped in vinegar. Available are various dishes featuring the mud crab. There is crab foo yong, a Chinese-style omelette filled with crabmeat and vegetables, as well as the inutok, a Visayan dish of crabmeat and coconut
wrapped in banana leaves. Kalderetang alimango, crabs stewed in a spicy tomato sauce, and
ginataang alimango, crabs simmered in thick coconut milk and spices, are also typically served.

Crab-inspired games are played after the meal. One of these is an alimango race, where locals bet on the crab that will reach the finish line first. Another game is a mud crab tying competition where players catch crabs and tie their claws as fast as possible. A highlight of this part of the festivities is a competition where the heaviest male and female alimango are weighed. Winning crabs typically weigh around 1.5 to 2 kilos. At the end of the festival, after most have had their fill and have become tired of pounding claws open, guests are treated to more crabs that they can bring home as pasalubong (souvenir).