Paoay's tradition of building catafalques attracting tourists

PAOAY, Ilocos Norte , Philippines  – The dead rise and take over this agricultural and fishing town during the All Saints’ Day holiday when Ilocanos celebrate the age-old tradition of building catafalques.

Tomorrow and Monday are red-letter days in Paoay, renowned for its UNESCO heritage listed baroque-inspired St. Augustine Church, as residents compete in making the most creative tumba-tumba.

The tumba-tumba is a catafalque built with indigenous materials like bamboo, coconut leaves and the town’s famous woven cloth to simulate the wake of the dead.

Each village’s catafalque is unique as residents try to outdo each other, crafting something that can give viewers goose bumps.

The show is not for the faint-hearted because the catafalques can be so real and cause nightmares.

It can also be seen as an elaborate political message such as the death of democracy catafalque of the Aglipayan Church in 2005 that was complete with eerie sound effects coming from the ground.

Also in 2005, school teachers staged a “graveyard” in memory of the mentors who sacrificed their blood and sweat educating students of the Paoay Central Elementary School, a stone’s throw away from St. Augustine Church.

This year, it is expected that entries will include election-inspired catafalques especially as sleepy towns come alive during local polls.

In the early 1970s and ’80s, villagers even went to the extent of placing actual coffins with old men or women inside them playing dead.

The tumba-tumba contest is very scary but it is an event much awaited by tourists and villagers who keep coming back to Paoay during All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day.

This tradition cannot be seen in any other town in the Philippines.

In between the long walks from a village to another for the rare experience of the tumba-tumba, one is also greeted with another totally hair-raising treat – lit candles below trees that typify a ghostly experience.

No one could say when the tumba-tumba actually started but it shows Paoayenos’ reverence for the dead, sentimentalism, tradition, realism and humor.

Paoayenos, however, explain that lighting candles under the trees will help these bear fruit.