My Colorful Experience at Pahiyas 2013

Since the Pahiyas festival will happen 2 days after elections, I took the opportunity of going to Lucban after fulfilling my duties as a citizen. I am from Quezon province but I seldom go to Lucban. 

Good thing I was able to get a long vacation for the election time and going to the festival will be easy since I will be coming from south instead of Manila. 

I arrived Lucena's grand terminal around past 12 noon and had lunch at a fastfood. My initial plan was just to take pictures of the decorated houses and doing that around 1 or 2 pm will give you sun burn or worst suffer heat stroke. 

I decided to drop by at Graceland Estates in Tayabas to have my bag checked-in to my reserved room. 

After resting for a while, I left the resort around 3 in the afternoon. The jeepney we were aboard was not allowed to enter the town proper since there will be a heavy flow of traffic. I had to take the tricycle to be able get to the edge of town and just walk until you can enter the town which I might say easier than bringing  a vehicle into the town. This is the same thing we did when we went here last 2011 -- we had to walk to get into town. 

Upon getting inside town, I had to find the street where the houses are decorated with kipings (a colorful leaf-like wafer made from rice), and most of the time are also decorated with vegetables.

 

These streets where houses are decorated varies every year. Since decorating a house takes effort and also some financial expenses, changing the assigned streets will give chance to other household to showcase their concept and creativity. 

How does the festival organizers encourage these people to decorate the houses? They hold contests with several categories to be won. This year they also added a new category for the best lighted decorated house. It was judged on the night of the fiesta and the winner got Php 100,000. I might say that's one reason to decorate your house elegantly. 

These streets where houses are decorated is also where the parade will pass. Townsfolk also believe that when the image of San Isidro Labrador, patron saint of the farmers, passes by their house, they will have a bountiful harvest for the year. 

I think I'm almost halfway through my trip on the streets when the parade started to pass. I had to stop taking pictures of the houses so that I can take pictures of the parade. 

After the parade passes by I continued with taking picture of the houses and I was wrong if I thought I was halfway because I was not. I also had to hurry up because the sun is almost gone. I'm not sure if my flash gun could still compensate for my shots. 

One thing I have noticed with some houses is that they include some product endorsement on their decoration like soy sauce for the famous pansit habhab or beer for the fiesta. I guess these house decoration might be sponsored by these products. That's one way of advertising during a town fiesta. 

Would you know that the street of decorated houses leads to the town's cathedral. It was already dark when I reached the church and I had difficulty getting a good shot. It seems this is also the final stop for the parade since the higantes are currently forming a line outside the church grounds. 

I paid a visit to the church and discovered a mini version of the town during fiesta displayed on the way to the parish office. 

It was around 7 that I have decided to call my Pahiyas trip for pack-up. I might have trouble getting back to my hotel since public transport such as jeepney might be scarce. 

I think I was able to see the highlight of Pahiyas 2013 as compared to what we've seen 2 years ago. I might be able to create a good itinerary for next year if destiny permits.