It is said that May in the Philippines is the merriest of months since it is when most of the festivals or fiestas are held, some simultaneously in various parts of the country. It is the month of the sagala in colorful Sta. Cruzan and Flores de Mayo processions. It is the month where the good harvest is celebrated and prayed for. It is the month where summer is at its peak, the thermometer registers its highest, and Manilans trek to the provinces to partake of unique provincial festivities.

We went on a three-day binge recently – to Bulacan to experience its "Back-toBack Fiesta Extravaganza" media tour (Baliuag’s Buntal Hat and Pulilan’s Carabao Festivals), under the auspices of Bulacan governor Josie M. de la Cruz; and to Liliw, Laguna at the instigation of new acquaintance and friend Concep Brosas for the town’s celebration of the San Isidro Labrador Sabugan festival.

Last May 13, the second year of organized festivities celebrating the buntal hat industry consisted of a parade of the residents wearing buntal hats, and little beauty queens astride colorful tricycle floats all adorned with buntal decor.

Ironically, the buntal fiber from the leaves of the buri palm is not indigenous the Bulacan, but rather to Quezon province. However, buntal hat-weaving was pioneered in Baliuag before the First World War and was so successful, that the government banned the exportation of the buntal fiber to support the local hat-weaving industry.

A slump has since plagued the industry, and it is to the credit of current Baliuag Mayor Joel Pascual and his wife Sonia that efforts to revive the then booming hat weaving industry are hopefully seeing results. Mayor Pascual is encouraged by response to the product at the recent trade fair in Las Vegas, Nevada, and to the cooperative formed domestically in support of the industry. Entrepreneurs like Rosario Bautista who is also an active member of the Provincial Tourism Office are contributing their bit to seeing a return to the good old days of buntal weaving.

The following day, May 14, saw the traditional world-famous "Carabao Festival" take to the streets of Pulilan, Bulacan. A tradition that started as far back as the 18th century in thanksgiving to San Isidro Labrador, patron saint of the Good Harvest (a farmer before he became a saint), the festival also honors the carabao as the king of farm animals. The highlight of the celebration is the afternoon parade of carabaos, cleanly scrubbed and waxed, their horns and bodies gaily decorated and painted. Upon reaching the town Church, the carabaos take turns genuflecting as if to give their own thanks to the Heavens for the year’s harvest.

May 15 is a red letter day for all festival lovers, when the "San Isidro Pahiyas" Festival of Lucban, Quezon takes place. Yearly, visitors travel 3-and-a-half hours to the town at the foot of Mt. Banahaw to revel in the multicolored kiping or rice wafers decorating homes, together with drapings of vegetables, fruits, bags, hats, Lucban’s longganiza that hang from balconies.

On the other side of Banahaw, another town also at the foothills similarly celebrates the feast day of San Isidro. Less known but nonetheless as boisterous, is Liliw, Laguna’s "Sabugan sa Liliw" where residents also give thanks for a good harvest. And what better way than to do this via sharing the good fortune from the town’s principal produce of tsinelas, a coconut-tree byproduct.

Tsinelas in various colors and styles, coins, and bills from R100 to R500 are thrown from balconies of buildings along the main street of Liliw. Our friend Concep says that this celebration has been with them for at least a hundred years, and every year all families who trace their roots to Liliw return to the place for the fiesta.