Blogs from Lucban, Quezon, Philippines, Asia

Houses are adorned with multicolored leaf-shaped rice wafers and every conceivable vegetable found in the residents’ kitchens. At almost every door, vendors are selling habhab, stir-fried noodles served on banana leaves and supposed to be eaten without any utensils or hands. And at the town church where throngs of crowd flock for the day’s mass, Naomi emerges with her friend Mark to join me and CJ in exploring the streets. It’s the Pahiyas Festival at Lucban, and the sleepy town in Quezon about a five-hour drive south of Manila has turned raucously merry. “You don’t see this in Manila,” says Naomi, a former student of mine and a resident in a nearby town. One of the more popular festivals in the Philippines, the Pahiyas is held every 15th of May in honor of Saint Isidore the ... read more

Lucban celebrates the Pahiyas Festival every 15 May in honour of the patron saint of farmers, St Isidore the Labourer. This festival showcases a street of houses which are adorned with fruits, vegetables, agricultural products, handicrafts andkiping, a rice-made decoration, which afterwards can be eaten grilled or fried. The houses are judged and the best one is proclaimed the winner. Every year, tourists roam the municipality to witness the decoration of houses... read more

Every May 15th, the residents of Lucban, Quezon celebrate the Pahiyas (meaning "decor") Festival in honor of San Isidro Labrador, the patron saint of farmers. Thin rice wafers locally called "kiping" are made in varying colors and shaped like leaves to decorate the facades of houses along with farm harvests such as tomatoes, stringbeans, pineapples, cucumbers, sayote, coconuts, ferns, as well as agriculture-based products such as ropes, hats, bags, etc. Kipings come in festive colors like yellow, pink, red, orange and green. Creativity flourishes in this part of the country, especially during this one-day festival celebration in thanksgiving for bountiful harvests. Amazing how local folks are able to create chandeliers called 'aranyas' made of kiping and how one's family endeavor to work together to showcase the f... read more