MANILA, Philippines - Persona, the mask used in ancient Greek theater, was fixed into either a smile or a cry, the comic and the tragic.

It was this concept of the persona, which Jung saw as ?the façade presented to satisfy the demands of the situation or the environment,? that the organizers of Negros? MassKara festival had in mind when they launched it in downtown Bacolod in 1980.

That year, Negros Navigation?s vessel Don Juan collided with a tanker and sank, losing some 700 lives. And the price of sugar, on which the province relied, was at an all-time low due to the introduction of substitutes such as high-fructose corn syrup.

To pull the people out of pervasive gloom, the local government, artists and civic groups decided to hold a week-long festivity culminating on the third weekend of October, closest to the 19th, to coincide with Bacolod?s Charter Day celebration.

The festival?s name is a compound of mass (as in ?multitude,? though one priest pointed out it originally referred to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass) and cara (Spanish for ?face,? ?front? or ?façade?).

The coinage alludes, of course, to máscara, since the festivity principally consists of a Mardi Gras-like parade of people wearing masks fixed into a smile and dancing to Latin rhythms, concentrated along Lacson Street.

As Bacolod was known as the City of Smiles, its festival literally became a multitude of smiling faces, even amid crises. In this it fulfills the Jungian concept of the persona as public personality (not representing the inner personality of the individual).

MassKara came on the heel of Iloilo?s Dinagyang, which started a few years earlier. At that time, the only nationally known festival in the South was Aklan?s Ati-atihan.

While the twin festivals of Panay had throngs pulsating to the throbbing rhythm of tom-toms and shouts of ?Hala bira!?, Negrenses adopted the shivering rhythm of dance to the tune of ?Sige lang! Sige na!?

MassKara has since become the biggest tourism event of Negros, boosting the province?s revenues while helping related industries such as souvenir shops, Manokan Country and Sugarlandia?s fabled sweets.

From a simple celebration of the Mass followed by street dancing, it has expanded into a whirlwind of activities. Now it is vying with Ati-atihan, Dinagyang and Cebu?s Sinulog as the premier festival of the Visayas.

Last month, the 29th MassKara festival was opened in Bacolod?s public plaza by no less than President Arroyo. Grand-prize winners in frippery and performance were Rafael Alunan Elementary School, Barangay Bata and Barangay Mandalagan.

Behind many of these masks you?d discern not merely a smile but what is almost a laughter. Because what you see is no longer a façade but happiness that is heartfelt.