Pitlagong Festival Honors the Humble Pitlagong Cleaning Tool

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PITLAGONG FESTIVAL

Photo from: http://www.choosephilippines.com/do/festivals/3536/pitlagong-festival/

The town of Argao is considered as one of the oldest towns in the province of Cebu, having been founded by the Spaniards and established as a pueblo in the year 1608. The name of the town was derived from abundantly growing plant in the area, known locally as “Sali-argaw”. The culture of the Argawanons is deeply rooted in its Roman Catholic faith so most of its socio-culture activities revolve around the Fiesta and Holy Week Celebration. They are considered religious, hospitable, fun loving, hard working and determined people. The Pitlagong festival of Argao is celebrated as a form of prayer and offering to Saint Michael the Archangel, the town’s patron saint. It is also considered as a way of uniting the people to participate in the community development efforts.

“Pitlagong” is an instrument made of bamboo and is used to clean the bamboo container (sugong) used in collecting coconut wine (tuba) or vinegar (suka). “Tuba” is part of the daily lives of Argawanon. Read More: http://cebufestivals.blogspot.com/2009/04/pitlagong-festival.html#.WYxRSumQxaQ

Photo from: http://everythingcebu.com

In deciding how to go about the festival, it was made clear that the dance choreography of the Pitalong Festival should be distinctive and should be based on the daily activity of the manananggot (or tuba gatherers) and the women who support their husbands by selling the finished products at the market.

The dance vocabulary include the GAKA, which is a giant, leaping step which depicts the manananggot’s climbing of the coconut tree; the ABIS, which is the act of cutting the fruits’ stem with a sharp, hooked knife (or sanggot) so that the flower sap can be collected using the sugong; the LIMPYO, which is the act of cleaning the sugong using the pitlagong; the LUSAD, which depicts the act of going down from the top of the coconut tree; and finally the BAKTAS, which means “to walk”, signifying the women’s walking to the market to sell the products from the farm.

Aside from the steps, the music and the instruments used for the Pitlagong Festival are also based on the mananaggot’s actions. This includes the sound of sharpening the sanggot, the trickle of the particles from the bulok (fruit stem) when cut, the music produced when cleaning the sugong with the pitlagong, and the buzz of the bees and other insects when attracted to the sweet sap of the coconut.

The instruments karatung and lantaka imitate the music made when the pitlagong is used to clean the sugong and the sound of the sugong, respectively. Finally, the costumes used for the festival are products of the weaving industry of the town, called hablonans, which is also a very old livelihood of the Argawanons. In short, the Pitlagong Festival is truly an Argawanon way of nurturing, inculcating, and passing on the faith, heritage, crafts, art, culinary expertise, and livelihood of a town to its future generation.

In 2011 the festival was discontinued in favor of the La Torta Festival. Read More: https://allaboutargao.wikispaces.com/The+Pitlagong+Festival