The Pahiyas

This is the festival celebrated every 15th of the hot summer month of May. An extravagant and colorful affair in the quiet town of Lucban, held in honor of San Isidro Labrador and is the farmers' thanksgiving for rich and bountiful harvest. The townspeople prepare many things for the festival among them is the all-important, Kipling. These are leaf-shape multi-colored rice-paste wafers used to decorate their houses along with agricultural produce like fruits, vegetables and flowers. This visual representation of the festival has garnered international recognation.,

The making of kipling is a time consuming and tendious work, starting starting with the selection of leavers to use as modling. The kinds of leaves that are good to use are banana(saba), talisay(umbrella tree), and kakao(cacao). The leaves should be mature enough so they can used more than once and do not break off easily. These are cut down(usually snipping off the edges to make the sizes and shape uniform, and wiped clean to avoid any gathering of dirt and inconsistency of color.

The preparation of the rice paste is more difficult. Laon, a kind sticky rice is used, it is stocked for a year, soacked for a 2 hours and then ground, mixed with water, food coloring and salt. The resulting paste is spread individually on each leaf then, steamed for 30 minutes, it will be left to dry under a shade and peeled off, place one top of another under a weight and compressed for half a day. These are stored in either a clean box or hanged.

People believe they should stay quiet when mixing, to avoid cracking on the kipling, then the paste will be spread individually on each leaf, steaming it 30 minutes. Left dry under a shade and peeled off, place on top one of another kipling placing under a wieght amd compressing for a half a day and storing them either in a clean box or hanging them. Even though the process is very long, the outcome is a beautiful sight to see.

We are proud the filipino culture.