Remembering Pahiyas

It is almost May and the weather burns. What do I do with myself? Do I go out or stay home? Where is it cooler? Do I get bored or find entertain-ment? What should I do? Then from somewhere in my mind I remember Pahiyas, the mega-fiesta of Lucban, Quezon, where I used to love to go when I was so much younger.

I remember the first time we went to Pahiyas. We were a big group invited by a gentleman we called Tata Abuy. We were all working at McCann-Erickson then. He was in charge of print production and we were all in the Coca-Cola Group. A bunch of us packed up our families and decided to go on the day of the fiesta itself, May 15, the feast day of San Isidro Labrador, patron saint of the farmers.

Three of my four children came with me. We left early and made the two-and-a-half to three-hour drive to Lucban, Quezon, laughing and singing in our respective cars. There were so many town fiestas on the way. Trees were being decorated with candies that later in the day would be "bent" for the children to jump for them.

When we arrived in Lucban, everything was so impressive and festive. I will not forget the monument in the plaza that I think it was made by Guillermo Tolentino, one of our National Artists for Sculpture. We went to the church where I bought anting-antings. Always I buy them at Catholic churches where they are sold along with the religious medals. That is one of the miracles of our local culture. Go to any church in the country, talk to the ones who sell medals, they will inevitably also carry the local anting-antings.

Then we walked up the street of the kiping displays. Kiping is a leaf that they make out of rice flower and colored water then these are molded on leaves and left out to dry. I don’t think they are baked. They are symbols of harvest and are used to decorate the front of farmers’ homes as a sign of celebration. They deck out their homes with fruits, vegetables and kiping hanging lantern style from ceilings and windows, the most fabulous displays of agricultural products, sometimes interrupted by scarecrows, birds, white worms crawling up a mountain of green on a bilao, an image permanently engraved in my memory. Not even a stroke could erase it. To this day I wonder what those white worms were. Maybe they were silkworms. I was too intimidated, too grossed out to even find out.

We went to many homes then, escorted by Tata Abuy, who unfortunately has crossed over to the next life now. Every house we went to we went up a wide flight of wooden stairs to be greeted at the top by the lady of the house who offered a glass of lambanog. You had to drink it bottoms up with her. Then she formally and joyously welcomed you. It was always the women who drank the lambanog. It seemed like a feminine thing to do locally.

My group chose me to drink the lambanog on their behalf. That’s how I found out that each house cured the lambanog with a special mixture of raisins or champuy or whatever to flavor it before the fiesta. So, no two glasses tasted alike. Thank God I could drink a lot then. I successfully downed four glasses of flavored lambanog from four houses and remained upright. Maybe I was drunk for a while but I remained upright. I don’t think we went shopping at the plaza then. We were too busy having fun at the fiesta.

The first time is always the most fun you have at the fiesta. The second time I went with my cousins and we did the housewife things. We bought dried flowers and hats at the plaza. Some of us bought slippers and clothes. Others bought food – pansit, longganisa to take home. We tried all sorts of wonderful food at the fiesta. Budin, which is a cassava cake, pilipit, which is made out of squash flour, I am told. Tamales, delicious! There was also suman espasol and broas. I remember so many delicious things to eat, so many pretty things to buy.

Then I remember one more time I went and we tried to catch the afternoon parade of carabaos. It would begin at the church. There we went and amid the carabaos discovered that any time you wanted them to parade down you had to be prepared for a lot of their carabao cakes. Plop. Plop. And quite smelly. I remember pulling my companion out of there and saying it wasn’t worth the wait.

What lovely memories. Do I have the courage to go back to Lucban again? No, I don’t think I can brave the heat again nor the traffic. But there are two places I think I can go to. One is in Alabang. I passed a sign that said Pahiyas ng Lucban sa Alabang on April 29 and 30, details of which came out in this section last Sunday. And there’s a Pahiyas sa Wack Wack on May 4 and 5 at 573 Wack Wack Road right across the golf club. That’s easier for me to reach. It’s open to the public. I might even see you there.

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