Crowd thinner at Lucban’s ‘Pahiyas’ Festival

FARM FRESH Houses in Lucban, Quezon, are adorned with colorful rice wafers and freshly harvested palay, vegetables and fruits as the town celebrates Pahiyas festival. —DELFIN T. MALLARI JR.

LUCBAN, QUEZON — The recently concluded barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections and a working weekday drove many revelers away from this year’s “Pahiyas” festival at Lucban town in Quezon province, an official said.

While police and local officials did not provide figures on festival attendance, they observed fewer tourist buses and vehicles parked along the road leading to the town on Tuesday.

Fidel Suario, secretary to the town council, said the local government’s appeal to declare May 15, the feast of San Isidro de Labrador, the patron saint of farmers, as a holiday had been denied because the event was a religious activity.

Pahiyas, known for its displays of “kiping” (rice wafers), vegetables, fruits and other native products in every house along the procession route, has become one of the country’s top tourist drawers. — DELFIN T. MALLARI JR.