PAHIYAS: A Harvest Festival

By Renato Perdon
Bayanihan News
Sydney, Australia
May 29, 2015



The traditional Filipino rituals before the arrival of the Europeans in the Philippines found their similarities in the religious feasts that were introduced by the Spanish religious.

The acculturation that had taken place during the three centuries of Spanish colonisation resulted to a tradition known today as fiesta, a Filipino homecoming and towns visiting day.

Fiesta is usually held to celebrate a religious event or to honour a patron saint. As a way of life, it is a social occasion where relatives and friends from in and out of town get together to make merry. As the dates of fiestas rarely coincide it is the best way to display good neighbourliness.

Every town has its patron saint and in whose honour a colourful fiesta is held annually. It is always characterised with gay music, feasting, display of fireworks, religious activities and theatrical performances.

In 1870, a Frenchman who lived in the Philippines for many years, described the religious festival in the Philippines as excessively numerous. He observed that one half of the year is spent by the Filipinos in fiestas where people from neighbouring villages attend in masse and stay for several days.

Before the month of May ends, I almost forgotten to post this short piece on one of the favourite Filipino fiestas in the Philippines which happened every year in May.

This feast that draws people from all over the country, including overseas visitors, is the unique and colourful harvest festival called pahiyas (precious offering) held in May in the town of Lucban, Quezon Province, south of Manila. It is the townfolks way of saying thank you to Nature.

Nature’s bounty calls for celebration. An abundant harvest is a good reason to hold a festival which is link with the religious calendar. The fiesta is preceded by the traditional novena, then followed by religious procession, banquet, balls, pabitin, and theatrical presentations.

While other towns in the Philippines pride themselves with their pinipig ritual or pounding of rice into crisp, chewable grain, a festival occasion characterised by rhytmic clapping, singing, dancing and general merriment and the carabao festival where decorated animals are paraded around town as a thanksgiving gesture, the people of Lucban are proud of their pahiyas and the kiping, a baked rice dough, paper thin and brilliantly coloured that helps transform the town into a festive picture.

The unusual whole day celebration that comprises the pahiyas is undertaken to honour San Isidro de Labrador, the Spanish farmer who was canonised a saint of the Catholic Church and regarded as the religious patron of farmers.

In the afternoon, a candlelight parade with the image of the patron said, San Isidro de Labrador, in the lead while the town folks follow, is held. The usually long procession winds its way around the town and back ot the church. Giant figures walking on bamboo stilts, bulls made of paper mache joined the procession and excite the children who screams because of excitement. There is a feeling of frolicsome revelry all around.

Colourful bamboo poles, locally called pabitin, are lined along the sides of the streets where the procession will pass. The pabitins are festooned with fanciful decorations, candies and other edible goodies. As the procession moves, the bamboo poles are lowered to allow the participants and spectators the chance to grab what they wish from the pabitin. Along the street, elders throw candies to participants and this created stampeded which is a part of the festivities emphasising the idea of the town folks enjoying the bounty from the lands.

Although the procession of the image of San Isidro is the vocal point of the pahiyas festival, a celebration continues even after the procession has completed its journey and back, to the church. The banquet table sin almost all houses are overladen with food in stupendous amounts for guests to eat and even to take home. The lambanog is a popular drink that contributes to the merriment. Some says that doctors in the remote villages use it as a disinfectant.