Local Filipinos and tourists alike are preparing to celebrate the annual Pahiyas Festival, a colorful feast in honor of San Isidro Labrador (the patron saints of farmers), as a thanksgiving for a…
Local Filipinos and tourists alike are preparing to celebrate the annual Pahiyas Festival, a colorful feast in honor of San Isidro Labrador (the patron saints of farmers), as a thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest. The week-long cultural and culinary festivities, taking place in Lucban, Quezon, May 11 – 15, 2006, attract tourists from both local and foreign shores and has gained national and international notoriety.
To help celebrate this highly-anticipated festival, decorations called “kiping,” leaf-shaped and multi-colored rice paste wafers, are used to adorn homes along with different fruits and flowers as well as ropes and straw hats. The decorating starts before the actual fiesta, and excitement fills the air with a friendly competitive spirit over who will have the best-ornamented house of the year. The houses on the procession route are lavishly decorated and considered to be blessed throughout the year, so the route is changed annually.
Throughout the Pahiyas Festival, locals open their homes to entertain visitors with stories of the multi-colored history of the Pahiyas festival and, of course, to serve food. On the final evening of the festivities, after the dismantling of decorations, everyone is given a sampling of the “kiping” as a token of the host’s gratitude.
Known as Manila’s gateway to southern Luzon and the Bicol region, the province of Quezon features many tourist attractions, including: mountain climbing, bird watching, culinary tours, heritage tours, swimming, pilgrimage tours, and ecotourism.
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