Pahiyas Festival
The Pahiyas Festival (also known as the Feast of San Isidro Labrador) is one of the Philippines’ most colorful festivals. San Isidro Labrador (or St. Isidore the Laborer) is the patron saint of farmers. Locals believe that praying to him and celebrating this festival will lead to an A+ harvest. It has been celebrated annually every May 15 in Lucban Quezon since the 16th century during the Spanish occupation in the Philippines. Despite it falling on a weekend, there was still a lot of people!
Since it’s the summer time, be dressed in light, cool clothing. Bring a hat, apply sunblock and wear shades to avoid any skin and eye damage. Bring a small bottled water or you can buy from those selling in the streets for a reasonable price.
With my cousins, Alex and Meg at the Pahiyas Festival
It’s funny actually because labrador actually means someone who works the cow and is different from obrero or trabajador which means worker in general. The kind of miracles associated with him are a bit funny like one wherein his co-farmers were complaining to their master that Isidore wasn’t doing his job and came to work late all the time. When the guy went to check it out, he apparently say angels (what!) doing the ploughing for him. There was also that occasion that two angels ploughed beside him so he was technically doing three people’s work. If that’s not wild enough, he apparently brought this master’s daughter back to life and brought a fountain of fresh water come from the ground because the guy was thirsty. Around 40 years after his death, a massive storm exhumed a lot of bodies in the cemetery he was buried in and they found his body in pristine condition.
Pahiyas means “precious offering”, coming from the word “hiyas” which means jewels. You’ll be surrounded by bright colors, beautiful works of art, music and crowds of excited festival goers!
It’s common for many houses to join the fun by decorating their houses with our first harvests that are blessed by priests as the procession passes by. This is said to improve the chances of good harvest and a good way to share one’s blessings.
One of the popular ways to design houses is to put kiping, multi-colored edible rice paper wafer that they often turn into chandeliers called aranya. They have a competition every year and give out dozens of awards for the best decorated homes.
You can see how the kiping is used to decorate the house.
If you’re interested to know how they’re made, you can check this video below. It’s a pretty interesting tradition! It’s great because after the festival is over, most of the houses give these away to spectators or turn them into rice crackers that last a pretty long time.
It was fun. The houses were beautiful and it was a great way to appreciate everything from Lucban’s local history, cuisine and culture. I would love to go back!
