Skip to main content

Oldest traditional costume event takes centerstage in Guling-guling Festival

Image
By
By Leilanie G. Adriano 
Staff Reporter

PAOAY, Ilocos Norte—The old familiar sight of Ilocano men and women wearing abel-inspired traditional costume took centerstage as they swayed their hips and arms in a street dancing parade around the town plaza, drawing a huge crowd of viewers taking snapshots of them while performing in front of the picturesque St. Augustine Church in time for the town’s celebration of Guling-guling festival.

On March 4 or a day before Ash Wednesday, Paoay residents never fail to celebrate an old tradition that dates back to the 16th century when people gather and enjoy all forms of merry making such as cooking dudol (native rice cake) and drinking basi (sugarcane wine) before they enter the season of Lent.

Aside from the street dance showdown with at least 10 contingents participating this year, the Guling-guling festival highlighted the wearing of fashionable Abel Iluko or hand-woven textiles famous in this northern part of Luzon.


According to Ianree Raquel, Ilocos Norte provincial tourism officer Norte, he said the search for the traditional and spectacular Guling-Guling costumes aims to promote these cotton-loom woven textiles called inabel with its versatility that is limited only to the imagination as local weavers continue to develop new designs and techniques. The first category encourages the young generation to appreciate the old traditional Ilocano costume while the second category hopes to inspire creativity and fun to local designers and artists. Cash prizes ranging from 5,000 to P1, 000 also await the winners proclaimed after the dance showdown.

History records show that inabel is deeply rooted in the Ilocano traditions since the Spaniards colonized Ilocos Norte in 1572.

Known for its strength and durability, the locals used to trade them for gold, ceramics, jars, iron and beads from China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. The Spaniards likewise endorsed it as excellent sails for galleons in the same way it was utilized locally in boats, barangays and other sea-going vessels.


Because of its astonishing beauty, inabel has caught the attention of international couturiers that started working with Ilocano weavers in innovating new products made of inabel.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Empanada festival: A celebration of good taste and good life

By
By Dominic B. dela Cruz & Leilanie G. Adriano Staff reporters BATAC CITY—If there is one thing Batac is truly proud of, it would be its famous empanada-making business that has nurtured its people over the years. Embracing a century-old culture and culinary tradition, Batac’s empanada claims to be the best and tastiest in the country with its distinctive Ilokano taste courtesy of its local ingredients: fresh grated papaya, mongo, chopped longganisa, and egg. The crispy orange wrapper and is made of rice flour that is deep-fried. The celebration of this city’s famous traditional fast food attracting locals and tourists elsewhere comes with the City Charter Day of Batac every 23 rd  of June. Every year, the City Government of Batac led by Mayor Jeffrey Jubal Nalupta commemorate the city’s charter day celebration to further promote its famous One-Town, One Product, the Batac empanada. Empanada City The Batac empanada festival has already become...
14 comments
Read more

2020 Laoag City Traffic Code

By
  Republic of the Philippines Province of Ilocos Norte CITY OF LAOAG   SANGGUNIANG PANLUNGSOD   EXCERPT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE 58 TH REGULAR SESSION OF THE 11 TH SANGGUNIANG PANLUNGSOD OF LAOAG HELD AT THE SANGGUNIANG PANLUNGSOD SESSION HALL, LAOAG CITY ON OCTOBER 14, 2020. PRESENT: 1.        Hon. Vicentito M. Lazo                                                 City Vice-Mayor/Presiding Officer Hon. Juan Conrado A. Respicio II                                              S.P....
44 comments
Read more

Marcos town celebrates 3rd Pinakbet Festival

By
MARCOS, Ilocos Norte—Taking pride of this town ’s favorite Ilo cano dish, locally known as pinakbet, a mix of indigenous vegetables steamed in fish sauce, residents here ushered the opening of the third Pinakbet festival. “Pinakbet” came from the contracted Ilokano word ‘pinakebbet ’ which means “ shrunk ” or “shriveled.” As a way of thanksgiving, the Pinakbet festival is a repository of the town ’ s “ani” [harvest] festival being celebrated every month of March but this was later moved to December to accommodate more balikbayans wanting to join the festivity. Residents in this agricultural town derived most of their income from the harvest of high value crops, including rice, tobacco and corn as staple crops. This year, the week-long festivity highlighted a grand parade around the town plaza and a pinakbet cook fest at the municipal gymnasium to showcase the best pinakbet in town. A boodle fight followed suit. Earlier, a fun run was participated by various groups ...
5 comments
Read more