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Posted by Lani on Friday, December 29th, 2006 at 4:54 pm
Google ilocos+buri festival and you will get over a dozen links to news featuring the eagerly awaited First Buri Festival of San Juan, published before the big event happened. From the reports, it is obvious local officials put much hope on the festival to boost the tourism industry in San Juan. On the day of the grand parade, we were all out on the streets, excited and eager to see the longest mat and how things will go. Now that the big event has come and gone, I wonder if we had our hopes up too high.
Suffice it to say that there’s a need for a lot of improvement in the preparation, coordination, execution and presentation of the festival. Of course it’s understandable since anything done for the first time is bound to be full of awkwardness and mistakes. Nevertheless, because it was much hyped about and could be considered San Juan’s coming out party in the area of themed festivals, it should have been planned and carried out much, much better to make it worth presenting to the whole Philippines (there was television coverage via a national network). As I write this, I’m not yet sure how long exactly the mat was; but I take more issue with the fact that the mat was not prepared very well. There was a section where it was partly torn and the buri fibers frayed; this we saw during the parade. I heard people commenting that the reason was because that section was not properly sewn together. Yes, that’s another point; the “longest” mat was not made of a single mat but many mats sewn together at their ends. Could this disqualify the town’s bid for a Guinness World record? I think that if efforts are properly coordinated and done well ahead of time, it is not impossible to weave a four-kilometer mat as a single piece.
Anyway, the street dancing was a saving grace, although we almost missed it since it came several minutes after the buri parade had passed and people had started leaving the streets. The pupils and students who participated were very good, the costumes very colorful and creative. Hats off to those who prepared for this part of the festival.
If anything, the Buri Festival awakened the dormant creativity of Lapoguenio weavers. We saw leis, vests, skirts, sandals, boots, headdresses, and belts made of buri. I can only hope that this will be done on a yearly basis since it does much in challenging the creativity and ingenuity of Lapoguenio buri weavers. If this festival were done annually, our weavers would learn to innovate and soon produce not just bags, mats, hats and fans but other marketable items with better quality. And then maybe in time, we can rightfully claim the title Buri Capital of the Philippines.
(More pictures may be viewed here and here.)
Congratulations to all my Lapoguenio townmates for establishing the very First Buri Festival! Based on the pictures and articles, it is quite an accomplishment to see the “longest” mat whether we set a Guinness World record or not. I hope there will be a shopping place soon at San Juan to buy the leis, vests, skirts, sandals, boots, headdresses, and belts. I’m sure many out-of-towners would be interested with these products. The parade was nice and colorful. I have a feeling this is the start of a beautiful annual celebration…..
Alfonso and Florida…I hope you both had a chance to see the parade.
Happy New Year to all!
1 | Tony Rabanal December 30th, 2006 at 8:42 amHappy New Year to you too, Manong! Yes, we all would like to see a showroom where our buri products may be displayed, ready for buyers and visitors to see. Let’s all cross our fingers the festival would indeed be done annually from this year.
2 | Lani December 30th, 2006 at 10:20 amLooking at those pictures, I somewhat sensed that the festival is a success. You can see the spectators looking delightfully at the parade’s participants. The kids look like they are enjoying their dance and their costumes are very colorful.
While I was watching the Rose parade, I remember the Buri Festival parade. I realized that the Rose parade attracts so many spectators because it is very colorful with beautiful float designs. I was telling myself that the Buri Festival parade can still be improved to attract more people and become an annual event to look forward to every town fiesta. One of my suggestions is to make the mat more colorful. Right now, you can see a very monotonous gray color being carried by the parade participants. If these gray mats will be turned into various colors, it will be more delightful to look at.
It could be that turning the gray mats into colorful designed mats will require more expense. If this is the problem, we can tap the help of all Lapoguenios overseas workers and residents. We can use the mats as pages for congratulatory messages similar to souvenir programs. I am sure many Lapoguenio families will be interested to buy or sponsor a mat. These mats will be preserved for the next year’s parade. Every additional sponsor will get additional mat and will be added to the existing length of mats every year. Eventually, as years goes by, the mat will become the longest mat that will merit inclusion in the Guinness Book of World records.
I don’t know if the world record has been broken already. I was estimating it and one kilometer needs at least 350 mats and so for 4 kilometers the needed number of mats is about 1,400. That is a lot of mats!
Tony, Florida, and Lani… a Happy and Prosperous New Year to all!
3 | Alfonso S. Quilala Jr. January 3rd, 2007 at 8:44 amRe: #3
4 | Lani January 3rd, 2007 at 9:23 amI’d say ‘amen’ to that. The street dancing was indeed very interesting and entertaining, the children and youth gave their best in their presentation. I’d consider the buri festival a success in terms of bringing out the dormant creativity of the Lapoguenio weavers. I am just praying this will be done every year. I’ve already heard some skeptics say it won’t be.
As I glanced at those photos from the palm tree fibers and/or the stem weaved together to form such a beauty of natural handmade ornaments, collectibles, or by means clothing, kitchenwares, decorative items, etc….the replica I grew up with came alive!
Our third generation family were on the business of these palm tree categories. We never made a fortune on the items, but I tell you my parents never had to borrow money from family and friends, from our neighbors to the professionals; and the trade brought us in a good school, good foundation and in good shape!
My father never finished his Engineering courses because he was the eldest of eight children, and he helped out his siblings going to school after finishing his automotive career by helping his parents with the automobile business, and the trade of buying and selling. As far as I remember, he only worked on Sunday selling these items in Santa Maria. My mom on the otherhand never finished her Teaching career because she was also the eldest of six. Instead, she finished as a salutatorian in Dressmaking, and learned how to do hairstyling. Both my parents pursued careers were never applied to, but instead they continued trading these items.
Is there a way that we could collect one of these items for preservation to our industry? I recalled our very first Cristo Rey with many items and creativity of our townmates. I reminished the past of those preserved and live animals, those memorabilia of our own town products, and many made items for this event, but these were not preserved and have not seen any photos of them again.
By the way, just for heads up, palm trees are also known as, please see link below:
http://www.2020site.org/trees/palm-tree.html
I hope we learn each day as we pursue what we call our creative mind and spirit! It is not what we finished of what we become, but what we do in our community!
Thumbs up!
5 | Jane January 6th, 2007 at 1:48 amIn every endeavor there are always skeptics. What the local officials need to do is to strengthen their resolve and prove that they can do it. With the help of all Lapoguenios locally and abroad, Buri Fesitival can definitely be done annually.
6 | Alfonso S. Quilala Jr. January 6th, 2007 at 4:48 ammy warmest greetings to my long lost friend Tony…. my apology i missed that great event how i wished i had witnessed it, it reminisce the past for the reason that my loving mother who was the best mat weaver i have ever known. if she is still alive am pretty sure she had contributed greater with that longest mat parade. i remember when i was still in elementary my mom used to weave mats until the wee hours in the morning just to finish the one piece of mat because she got many orders from adjacent towns…that made her bend her back..in ilocano dialect…kubbo…
7 | florida bondad santiago January 9th, 2007 at 2:00 pmlani, ading many thanks for all your good features here..god bless…