Skip to main content

Paoay’s Guling-guling becomes a nat’l festival



PAOAY, Ilocos Norte--Thousands of people filled the streets leading to the picturesque Paoay Church on February 17 as the townsfolk celebrate the annual Guling-guling Festival, reaffirming the 600-year old tradition of faith and resiliency of Ilocanos.

In keeping with the town’s Catholic roots, the festivity is traditionally held the day before Ash Wednesday which marks the last day of merriment before the observation of the season of sacrifice or lent.

The festival highlights street dancing and the community feasting on “dudol”, a heritage delicacy made of rice and molasses and drinking “basi”, a sugarcane wine, to stir excitement and bliss all throughout the celebration.

A national pageantry of faith and resiliency
Ilocos Norte Governor Ma. Imelda “Imee” R. Marcos hailed the people of Paoay as the celebration is now regarded as a national festival in the Philippines.

“Being an authentic cultural festivity, the celebration of the Guling-guling Festival is backed by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts,” said Ms. Josefina Guillen, head of the national committee on dance of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).

Paoay Church’s parish priest Msgr. Manuel Lamprea Jr. revealed that the tradition of Guling is entirely based on the bible, particularly the Book of Exodus which is a strong manifestation of the strong Christian beliefs of Ilocanos since time immemorial.

“Truly, this is a celebration of the remarkable faith and resiliency of Ilocanos. Despite the difficulties that surround us, we still find time to be resilient, to be proud and to remain Christian and prayerful,” said Ms. Marcos.

SCENES from the Guling-Guling festival 2015 dance parade and showdown. (Alaric A. Yanos)


Enlivening Paoay Church
Local and foreign tourists marveled at the sight of the glorious Paoay Church where the street pageantry showdown was held.

“Paoay indeed has been the center of our lives, the center of our history. Through the celebration of Guling-guling, we have brought to life the glorious Paoay Church that is recognized worldwide for its tremendous architecture and for enduring natural disasters,” said the governor

During the celebration, she reminded Ilocanos of the anonymous Filipino architect and extraordinary Ilocano engineers and workers who put together a church in 16th century “making certain that until today we will have a church that will stand a test of time, extreme weather and cruelty of mankind.”

Ms. Marcos initiated several projects to enliven the Paoay Plaza which embraces and enshrines the world-renowned Paoay Church. This has then improved the economic situations in the town with more job opportunities as it has drawn thousands of local and foreign tourists.

Passing the tradition to the youth
Rosita Corpuz, 75, of San Roque, Paoay, reminisced the old days while watching the grand street pageantry. “On the day of the festivity, we would wake up early in the morning to cook “dudol” and proceed at the place of the “dadapilan” (sugar mill machine), to drink “basi”.

VISITORS try the "paltaw", rice flour rolled into a ball and cooked in boiled sugar cane juice. (Alaric A. Yanos)
She noted that seeing more young people participating is an important aspect of the celebration “as passing the tradition to them will mean the preservation of the traditions and continuity of the rituals and practices in the next years to come.”

What makes Mrs. Corpuz more proud of the festival is that despite the obvious modern improvements, it still prioritizes to showcase Paoay’s traditions that withstood time.

Meanwhile, 14 year-old Maria Cabrera, a first-time dancer in the street pageantry, said that Guling for the young people means “respect to the people before us, our ancestors, which is why I am here to perform the traditional dance ritual like the “binatbatan” that depicts the making of Ilocanos’ woven cloth called “abel” to honor the legacy our forebears handed to us.”

Ilocano men and women wearing abel-inspired traditional costume were sighted during the celebration as they swayed their hips and arms during the street-dancing parade. (PGIN-CMO)

The traditional sugar cane crusher known as "dadapilan" is brought out during Guling-guling Festival for visitors to watch how it is used.
Alaric A. Yanos



(Left) dudol and a banana trunk plate with the paltaw, dudol, malunggay paltaw and papaya trunk paltaw)
Alaric A. Yanos

Dudol is traditionally cooked from a hole in the ground.
Alaric A. Yanos

Visitors enjoy basi tasting. Basi is an alcoholic beverage fermented from sugar cane juice.

Alaric A. Yanos 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Empanada festival: A celebration of good taste and good life

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 an annua

PIDS expert says income tax cuts justified; warns gov’t of revenue loss

Proposals to amend the personal income tax schedule appear to be well-justified. However, these proposals should include measures that will allow government to recover the revenue loss from lower income taxes. Dr. Rosario Manasan, senior research fellow of state think-tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), said at a seminar sponsored by the Philippine Senate, that government should look for new revenue measures to compensate for the projected revenue loss that will arise as a result of the implementation of any of the various proposals to restructure the personal income tax. Currently, there are several income tax reform proposals pending in both houses of Congress. All of them, according to Dr. Manasan, have the same objective of addressing the phenomenon of bracket creep, which results from “non-indexation to inflation of personal income tax brackets”. Simply put, bracket creep occurs when employees’ income increases over time as a result of inflation. Th

PGIN honors Ilocano heroes of past, present through Heroes Walk

SPO1 Allan Lampitoc Franco of Banna, Ilocos Norte and PO2 Jovalyn D. Lozano of Adams, Ilocos Norte receive a resolution of commendation, a certificate of college scholarship grant to their family members and a P20,000 cash incentive each from the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte represented by Governor Imee R. Marcos and Vice Governor Angelo M. Barba in recognition of their bravery and heroic acts in the Mamasapano clash in Maguindanao on January 25. Mr. Franco and Mr. Lozano were recognized on March 10 in time for the unveiling of the second batch of Ilocano heroes at the Heroes Walk located along the Sirib Mile in Laoag City.  (Lei Adriano) By Jennifer T. Pambid PGIN-CMO In honor of the heroes who brought freedom, fame and glory to the province as well as to the country in the past century, the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte (PGIN) through the Education Department and Sirib Youth Office launched the second batch of Ilocano Heroes Walk on March 10, 2015.