"They take pride of their vocation and they just have proven that you don't need to wear formal clothes to show that you work with dignity. Wearing those farming clothes made them heroes in my eyes."
One reason why it is more fun in the Philippines is the festival-oriented culture of the Filipinos. We love festivals a lot and no wonder why everyday, there is a festival happening around the country. In the City of Batac in the province of Ilocos Norte, Philippines, they opened the highly festival-saturated month of May with the Farmers Festival.
Farmers Festival is a week-long celebration of Batac City's commitment to support the farmers of the city. Having an ample area with fertile fields suitable for farming, Batac City continues to be a producer of rice, corn, vegetables and other crops.
Thirty (30) rural barangays with a community-base of farmers joined the colorful Carosa Parade spanning Washington St., in Batac City. Traffic flow rerouted to give give way for the carosa/s.
Those carosas, usually pulled by carabaos, became human-drawn. Traditionally, carosa serves as a way to transport farm produces from the fields to the place where those agri-products will be stored.
But with the Farmers Festival, these carosas are transporting the lovely ladies of the countrysides.
Sitting at every carosa is the "Balasang 'ti Away," an Ilocano phrase for lady of the countryside. In Ilocano, the vocabulary is very rich that "balasang" specifically describes a non-married woman.
The vocabulary of the Ilocanos are so much granulated that they have many specific farming-related terms and it only shows how dedicated the Ilocanos are in working in the fields.
For example the term "rice" is a general term and very broad in the Ilocano language. Rice is a word branched into more specific terms such as pagay (unharvested or non-milled rice), bagas (milled rice), innapoy (freshly-cooked rice), kilabban (left-over rice) and ittip (overcooked rice). With those Ilocano terms for rice, I bet there are no English single-word counterpart for those.
With their beauty queen-like waves and sweet gorgeous smiles, they proved that the women of the countrysides and of the farming communities have something good to offer.
The crowd were cooperative (except one, that's me, lol). No individual from the casual crowd ever attempted to go at the middle of the street to capture photos. But pasaway me, I am not contented with my location considering I traveled far just to witness this occasion then what I will just bring home are hideous photos, lol.
So I went to the middle of the street, the parade route itself, cause I wanted to capture the ladies up close. Just a point and shooter but why not? hehe.
The scene of the farmers wearing what they usually wear at the farm while parading on the streets was a heart-warming scene.
They take pride of their vocation and they just have proven that you don't need to wear formal clothes to show that you work with dignity. Wearing those farming clothes made them heroes in my eyes.
Truly, our farmers deserve to be recognized because they are the backbone of our economy.
The farmers have made our lives easy. All we have to do is to go the market and buy the food that we need. They deserve respect, equal rights and privileges, social benefits and great recognitions because their vocation is selfless, it is a human service that helps. /end
Thirty (30) rural barangays with a community-base of farmers joined the colorful Carosa Parade spanning Washington St., in Batac City. Traffic flow rerouted to give give way for the carosa/s.
Those carosas, usually pulled by carabaos, became human-drawn. Traditionally, carosa serves as a way to transport farm produces from the fields to the place where those agri-products will be stored.
But with the Farmers Festival, these carosas are transporting the lovely ladies of the countrysides.
Sitting at every carosa is the "Balasang 'ti Away," an Ilocano phrase for lady of the countryside. In Ilocano, the vocabulary is very rich that "balasang" specifically describes a non-married woman.
The vocabulary of the Ilocanos are so much granulated that they have many specific farming-related terms and it only shows how dedicated the Ilocanos are in working in the fields.
For example the term "rice" is a general term and very broad in the Ilocano language. Rice is a word branched into more specific terms such as pagay (unharvested or non-milled rice), bagas (milled rice), innapoy (freshly-cooked rice), kilabban (left-over rice) and ittip (overcooked rice). With those Ilocano terms for rice, I bet there are no English single-word counterpart for those.
The crowd were cooperative (except one, that's me, lol). No individual from the casual crowd ever attempted to go at the middle of the street to capture photos. But pasaway me, I am not contented with my location considering I traveled far just to witness this occasion then what I will just bring home are hideous photos, lol.
So I went to the middle of the street, the parade route itself, cause I wanted to capture the ladies up close. Just a point and shooter but why not? hehe.
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| Proud farmers, wearing clothes they usually use in farming |
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| Proud farmers taking the job of the carabaos in pulling a carosa |
They take pride of their vocation and they just have proven that you don't need to wear formal clothes to show that you work with dignity. Wearing those farming clothes made them heroes in my eyes.
Truly, our farmers deserve to be recognized because they are the backbone of our economy.
The farmers have made our lives easy. All we have to do is to go the market and buy the food that we need. They deserve respect, equal rights and privileges, social benefits and great recognitions because their vocation is selfless, it is a human service that helps. /end
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Tags: Batac City, Ilocos Norte | Festivals in Batac | Festivals in Ilocos Norte | Farmers Festival 2012 | Carosa parade
We also celebrate something like this. in valencia bukidnon, the city of golden harvest :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to know :) Blog it shugah! :)
ReplyDeleteAw I missed this – Biglaan kasi. Nice!
ReplyDeleteOO nga EAZY. whew. may carabao painting din sila eh :)
ReplyDeletemukhang simple lang pero importante din na naalala natin yung mga ganyang transportation.
ReplyDeleteTomoh sir dong!
ReplyDelete@wrey, thanks :) yung sinasabi mong float ay ang nag-stand out talaga sa parade :)
ReplyDeleteCarabaos, Horses and even cows are considered a hard labor animals in the field of farming. Tama lang din na atin silang ibandera and parangalan kasama ang mga magagandang dilag at siyempre at yong mga farmers. :-).
ReplyDeleteSir Bonz, oo nga. Kelangan nila ng recognition :)
ReplyDelete