The Catholic Church has detached itself from the “extravagance” and “commercialism” of the modern-day celebration of the feast of San Isidro de Labrador, the farmers’ saint, in Lucban town in Quezon province.
Msgr. Antonio Obeña, Lucban’s parish priest for three years, said the Church was “restressing” that the occasion should focus on the feast and not only on the “Pahiyas” festival, which is held yearly on May 15 as a form of thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest.
The Pahiyas, known for its exquisite display of multicolored “kiping” (colorful rice-based wafers arranged in chandelier-style artworks), farm harvest and other native products in every house along the procession route, has become one of the country’s top tourist draws.
The Department of Tourism has included the event as a must-see tourist destination owing to the town’s rich cultural history, color and gaiety.
Local gov’t role
This year, the Church staged the traditional procession of the San Isidro icon in the morning, unlike in the past when the religious rite was part of the festival parade in the afternoon.
The festival is an undertaking of the local government, not the church, Obeña said. However, he said both church and local government leaders had joined efforts to return its focus on San Isidro.
Mayor Moises Villaseñor rejected the notion that the color and gaiety of the festival had diminished the spirituality of the event.
“The feast of San Isidro has not become commercialized. The big companies are here as sponsors of different programs to enliven the occasion. The event has remained centered on the farmers,” he said.
Obeña defended the participation of big business. “The church cannot do anything about it. They are offering sponsorships to programs of the local government.”
On May 14, activist priest Jose Eranista of the Prelature of Infanta, in a phone interview, criticized the extravagance and commercialism of the Pahiyas, “when the farmers still experience daily pangs of hunger and their body and soul still belong to their landowners.”
In a statement, Fr. Edu Gariguez, secretary general of the Justice and Peace Desk of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines-National Secretariat for Social Action, said the feast could be meaningfully celebrated “if the coconut farmers can fully recover the coco levy (fund) stolen from them.”
Gariguez is a recipient of the 2012 Goldman Environmental Award, which honors leaders in the world whose work in the grassroots helps protect the environment.
According to local history accounts, the thanksgiving feast was first observed by residents during the precolonial times when they offered fresh produce to the “anito” (deceased ancestors or nature spirits). During the Spanish times, farmers put their harvest on their doorstep to receive a priest’s blessing during the procession of San Isidro’s image around town.
Organizers of the Pahiyas this year encouraged residents to adorn their houses with crops and other native products and gave cash prizes as incentive.
Houses with artificial decorations that carried business names were exempted. The one with the prettiest décor received P100,000.