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Batangas Festivals, Feast & Traditions

The Philippines is generally a festive nation, and Batangas festival is one good example. Maybe because of the Spanish influence during the 16th 18th century the Philippines was colonize by the Spaniards. According to the old Filipinos, the Spanish in the early days where the ones who initiated the festive mood in the Philippines. These festive celebrations do exist in the province of Batangas. In the month of May, most of the barrios do celebrate the barrio fiestas. I still remember when an employee of mine takes a vacation leave, because it was their barrio fiesta. This is a celebration that the batangueos cant miss.

The fiesta should be celebrated rain or shine. And most of the people will make their own way to celebrate the event. If they dont have the money, they are willing to take a loan, or sell their farm animals just to celebrate the ones a year fiesta. Most of the people, specially the old ones believe that celebrating their patrons saint day, will give them luck. This is why they are willing to stake their last earned money for a one-day celebration. If you have a chance to experience this fiesta, you will notice that everybody is invited. You dont need to know your host to enter ones house. They will accommodate you even this is the first time you have met. And treat you as a long time friend. One Batangas festival I recommend you must experience is the Parada ng Lechon (roasted pig parade) in Balayan Batangas. This event is celebrated every June 24. This event coincides with the feast day of San Juan.

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Another religious festival batangueos are known for is the Tapusan Festival in Alitagtag. The Tapusan honors the holy cross, and is celebrated May 31 every year. The parade is one of a kind. Floats garlanded with flowers including the image of the Virgin Mary, parade the streets of the town. Flores de Mayo and Tapusan Festival The Tinapay Festival (Bread Festival) in Cuenca, considered the bakers of Batangas province. It is held annually from February 7 to 13. The patron saint of Cuenca, Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage is being honored for abundant living and thanksgiving.

Fluvial Procession at Taal Sublian Festival Additional Batangas Festival Salubong Festival April 16 in the towns of Alitagtag and Bauan. Anihan Festival September 24 to 29, in Lobo. Coffee Festival December 11 to 16, in Lipa City Kinulob Festival - April 21 to 25, in Mabini Paskuhan Sa Maraykit - December 2, in San Juan Tinapahan Festival - April 29 to May 1, at Lemery

Christmas Celebration The Philippines a country recognized that celebrates the longest Christmas season. Christmas carols are played as early as September and the bash last up until the Three Kings, which is the first Sunday of January.

Batangas Traditions Batangas wedding tradition make a beautiful and exciting feast. Batangueos has high regard for the sanctity of marriage making the event a lengthy and grand occasion. Holy Week is a solemn religious tradition celebrated annually in Batangas and most parts of the Philippines. A nation where majority of its people are Roman Catholics and taken possession by Spain for three centuries.

Parada ng mga Lechon, Balayan, Batangas A lechon on a table during fiestas is already a big wow for the visitors. How much more of
this: a whole parade about 100 of these mouth watering, roasted pigs! This is what we could witness every 24th of June at Balayan, Batangas. Local Balayan folks do this tradition in commemoration of their patron, St. John the Baptist.

Institutions and different social organizations in Balayan participate in this event. They decorate and dress their respective lechon sometimes, in wigs, sunglasses, raincoats, or whatever the Balayan locals want and at the end of the day, the best-looking lechon takes home the bacon.

Flores de Mayo and Tapusan Festival The Tinapay Festival (Bread Festival) in Cuenca, considered the bakers of Batangas province. It is held annually from February 7 to 13. The patron saint of Cuenca, Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage is being honored for abundant living and thanksgiving. Fluvial Procession at Taal Sublian Festival Additional Batangas Festival Salubong Festival April 16 in the towns of Alitagtag and Bauan. Anihan Festival September 24 to 29, in Lobo. Coffee Festival December 11 to 16, in Lipa City Kinulob Festival - April 21 to 25, in Mabini Paskuhan Sa Maraykit - December 2, in San Juan Tinapahan Festival - April 29 to May 1, at Lemery

Christmas Celebration The Philippines a country recognized that celebrates the longest Christmas season. Christmas carols are played as early as September and the bash last up until the Three Kings, which is the first Sunday of January.

Batangas Traditions Batangas wedding tradition make a beautiful and exciting feast. Batangueos has high regard for the sanctity of marriage making the event a lengthy and grand occasion. Holy Week is a solemn religious tradition celebrated annually in Batangas and most parts of the Philippines. A nation where majority of its people are Roman Catholics and taken possession by Spain for three centuries.

Tinapayan Festival; The Big Bread Parade at Cuenca, Batangas

Cuenca, a town in Batangas is known for its panaderos (bakers) and best known with the tasty tinapay (bread) that these panaderos bake. With these, the local Government of Cuenca organized a festival called the Tinapayan where most bakers in town show workmanship at its best in Tinapay Festival, for the celebration of good tidings for the feast of San Isidro Labrador. This 2009, Tinapayan festival will have its year 3 this coming June. Townsfolk are sure to decid a more festive celebration with a bread parade, which will showcase creativity and talent of Cuencano bakers. Last year they had a lavishly breaded caravan pulled by a water buffalo by the Ang Tinapayan Bakery won then the first place in the parade. Meanwhile, Cuenca also portrays ala-Pahiyas of Lucban, Quezon with the house-decoration contest using bread as ornaments. In a statement made for Manila Bulletin, Cuenca Mayor Enrique M. Comia said, Other towns and cities in the country like Cebu, for instance, has its otap and Bulacan has its ensaymadas. We want a product that will be known to come only from Cuenca, This is why last year, the most anticipated competition was the Wow! Pasalubong Award, a bread-baking contest aimed at producing a product that is distinctly Cuenca. The Department of Tourism has expressed its support for the project. Mayor Comia added that in the case of Cuenca, such a product will not be difficult to produce as most bakers operating in Metro Manila hail from the town, earning its moniker Home of the Bakers.

Calacatchara Festival
The town folks of Calaca seemed like they had a fruitful celebration of CALACAtchara Festival 2010. CALACAtchara was derived from Calaca and atchara the towns main product. Atchara is made of pickled papaya, usually combined with carrot or bell pepper strips and raisins. The festivities started on October 15 with the celebration of Caracol de San Raphael (Calacas patron saint). It was a week-long celebration which concluded on Oct. 24, the towns fiesta. The festive activities were made for everyone in Calaca as they had activities for both young and old. CALACAtchara Festival showed how these people work to make each and everyone happy.

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LEMERY HOLDS 'TINAPAHAN' FESTIVAL


Lemery, Batangas, May 14, 2003 -- While activists and laborers trooped to Liwasang Bonifacio for their annual rally and demonstration on sweltering Labor Day, the people of Lemery, a hundred or so kilometers south, were dancing on the streets, celebrating the humble tinapa the smoked fish that has fed a multitude of peasants and laborers. But tinapa is no longer a poor man's viand, it is now enjoyed by all, especially for breakfast with sinangag (fried garlic rice) and a simple side dish of diced tomatoes and onions. Tinapa could be any fish galunggong (scud fish), bangus (milkfish), tilapia (St. Peter's fish), etc. as long as it is smoked to a deep auburn to golden color with a scent reminiscent of wood, bamboo and the sea.

It is high time indeed that a festival is held in this humble delicacy's honor. Yet while there have been a number of festivals celebrating a town's principal produce like milkfish, pandan, lanzones, flowers, people tended to exhibit a questioning look when I mentioned going to Lemery for its First Tinapahan Festival. Lemery? Tinapa? Though tinapa is made in virtually every part of the country, along the coasts, Lemery is not known for it. Lemery is one of the coastal towns of Batangas province. If nothing else, the town is variably known for its beaches and resorts, some of the most accessible from Manila. There are many resorts here, which can amazingly be filled up during the summer months. And families seem to bring their entire homes: folding chairs and beds, coolers packed with food and beverages, kitchenware, a blaring karaoke, etc. Clothes and blankets hanging on makeshift clotheslines double as dividers to create a sense of privacy. The scene can be surreal, like a shantytown on a holiday or a palengke with no commodities to sell (Well, a number of stalls selling drinks and food do sprout up, taking advantage of the tide of people). So, this is the Lemery most people, especially those from Manila, know. Though the town itself proves to be more restful, it is the mercantile center for eight nearby towns including Taal, Agoncillo, San Luis, Cuenca, Sta. Teresita, Calaca, Alitagtag and San Nicolas. It is to Lemery that many people from these towns go to buy and sell their produce, or send their children to school. Recent big developments in the town include the construction of Fantasy World, a 38-hectare amusement park patterned after Disneyland; and Leisure

Farms, an upscale real estate project that aims to create a community dedicated to organic farming and a clean lifestyle. Lemery itself, which was named after a soldier from West Virginia during World War II, is primarily agricultural, with coconuts, vegetables and sugarcane as the main produce. Fishing accounts for only 30 percent of the livelihood of the town's 68,000 residents. The tinapa industry is a recent development, spearheaded by Mayor Raul B. Bendaa, popularly called RBB. The fishing season here is from November to May. The sea yields a bountiful harvest of tulingan, galunggong, tamban or dampilas, milkfish, among others. So abundant is it that fishermen are forced to sell a substantial portion at give-away prices. Local government thus introduced the idea of making tinapa out of the excess catch. Creating a tinapa industry has proven exciting. Eliciting the help of the Department of Agriculture for technology and know-how, people in the coastal areas were taught to make tinapa and assisted to jumpstart a business. The next step was promotion and creating a wide market for the new industry. Thus, the First Lemery Tinapahan Festival. As there is no tinapa capital in the Philippines yet, Lemery might as well claim it. Never mind if its tinapa industry just started a year or so. By the promotional power of a touristy festival, Lemery in the long run may be known for producing the best tinapa. Festivals are usually held to celebrate something that has long been integral and influential to the life and culture of a place. But Lemery's Tinapahan Festival is doing the reverse: using one to incorporate something into tits life and culture. This was evident in the street pageant and the group dancing competition, staples of any Philippine festival. On the searing morning of May 1,

Lemereos got their first taste of their own festival when the street pageant marched and danced through their main streets, converging into a covered court at the back of the municipal hall. There were floats from private sectors like Fantasy World, Leisure Farms, the fast-food chain Jollibee and the animal feeds accompany, B-Meg. The local government contingent walked in bright yellow peasant costumes. The main part of the parade was the group competition for the court dancing tilt, participated in by the town's five schools. In the future, each barangay of the town will be urged to send their delegates for the street pageant dancing competition. In the court, competition began. The main requisite of contestants was that they must incorporate any two of the things used in making tinapa like fish nets, a bilao of fishes, baskets and the round bamboo implement in which the fish is smoked. The Governor Feliciano Leviste Memorial National High School jumpstarted the competition, with contestants in black tights and body painting. The girls of Sambal Elementary School were in light blue halter tops and skirts with gold tassels the shape of fish, while the boys had shirts made of fishnet. St. Jherome International School danced in bright yellow tops and neon pink and orange skirts. St. Mary's Educational Institute went for a more simple peasant look baro't saya and bakya. The Lemery Pilot Elementary School gave a grand production number complete with a float in the likeness of a giant clam ensconcing the sea goddess and her consort. There was a little cheerleading acrobatic number, where the goddess was tossed repeatedly into the air on a fishnet held by dancers in glittery, sequined attires, the skirts of which were shaped like fish tails. While many festivals try to be indigenous, the Tinapahan Festival dancing

competition used modern techno music and pop jazz steps reminiscent of noontime variety shows on television. The grand preparation of Lemery Pilot garnered for them the top prize, while Sambal Elementary and St. Jherome bagged the second and third prizes, respectively. Consolation prizes were given to Gov. Feliciano Leviste and St. Mary's. As the dancing competition progressed, stalls were set up at the sides of the court. These displayed vegetables, fruits, fishes, tinapa and home appliances. After a hearty lunch, we set out to visit Sambal Ilaya to see how tinapa is made. The barangay is a cluster of humble and seemingly makeshift houses, mostly of plywood and corrugated iron, huddled close together. In one house, the owners were proud to show their finished products in the smoky part of their house, which probably had been their dirty kitchen. Fresh fish were put into a bamboo container, which was placed in a sooty smoking aperture that looked like a caldera, and then covered. Iba ang timpla namin. Nilalagyan namin ng kusot ng narra (We used narra wood shavings to give it a different flavor), the tinapa maker said. Indeed, tinapa-making here seems a welcome livelihood aside from fishing. Maybe the fire will catch on and the whole community will spew smokes from making tinapa, giving the place a distinctive aroma that will tell visitors they are in tinapa country. But before that, they can at least witness the festival in the town proper a festival that will hopefully help the burgeoning industry grow. One suggestion: In the years to come, why not use the expletive Anak ng tinapa! and transform it into a funny and catchy slogan? (Text and photos by Roel Hoang Manipon)

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History
Cuenca was founded in 1875 by the decree of the Superior Gobierno issued on August 11, 1875. Another document states the barrios of Maculot, Dita, Ibabao, Labac, Bungahan and Dalipit be constituted into one civil and independent town due to its distance from the town of San Jose. In 1896, Cuenca had a population of 5,660, which increased to 6,938 in 1898. The town also played a role during World War II. Mt. Maculot became the strong hold of the Japanese forces in Batangas. They also built tunnels in some parts of Barangay Dita. During the Liberation, Cuenca was badly bombed which cause the deforestation of the slopes of the mountain. Rehabilitation was needed in order for the town to rise up from the ruins of the war. Local Filipino troops and officers of the 4th, 42nd and 45th Infantry Division of the Philippine Commonwealth Army and 4th Infantry Regiment of the Philippine Constabulary enters the liberated in Cuenca in 1944 to 1945 and helpul the local guerrilla resistance fighters and American liberation forces against the Japanese. Combined Filipino-American ground forces helped the town by rebuilding schools and bridges. A marker in Cuenca Central Elem. School shows the effort they did. Cuenca Institute was founded in 1947 in order to give secondary education and it is the oldest secondary institution in Cuenca. Back then, students who graduated elementary used to go to Batangas City or Manila and parents who could not afford to send their children to those places failed to give them a high school education. Cuenca became popular not only because of the mountain but to its number of bakers. In Manila, over 90% of all bakers come and started here, making Cuenca as "The Home Of The Bakers". Annually, festivals are made in honor of San Isidro Labrador.

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