Deploying traditions
for tourism

The Good Life with Eli F.J. Tajanlangit

Calatrava has turned to its traditions to build a tourism program.

In celebration of the feast day of its patronal saint Peter last week, the town celebrated Lilas Pandan festival, which focused on pandan weaving, a traditional handicraft that is becoming her economic icon.

Part folk dance, part theatre, part spiritual, part educational, the festival was a celebration of the townsfolk's artistry and values, which first found expression in weaving the dyed leaves of the pandan plant.

While the participants were given free rein as to the composition and choreography of their dance, they were given five basic steps, all taken from the movements in the whole process of pandan harvesting, dyeing, and weaving, to well, weave, into their presentations. Lilas are the strands taken from the pandan leaves, after they are cut and cleaned.

There is more than just artistry to celebrate in pandan weaving. As an industry, it developed in the mountain barangays, and forged something like a tribal community among the weavers.

Without the formal structures of business as we know it, the people in these barangays act like one tribal community, with each one simply taking his or her role in the entire weaving. Some households do just the harvesting of the leaves, others do the cutting and cleaning, while some others do the dyeing and yet another group does the weaving and still another, the finishing.

Nobody dictated that set-up, and nobody taught them. This strong sense of community is, to my mind, the platform on which the festival is built.

But the artistry! Ismael Java, who has spent years studying the cultural foundations of local dances, points out that the colors of the Calatrava weave stand out from other Philippine weaves. While the weaves from Southern Leyte come in pastels, here you have more intense colors, Java notes. Notice too, he adds, that those weavers can mix and match colors we cannot imagine and still come up with nice designs. He points out how the weaves could come in such supposedly disparate colors as browns with greens, or violets with yellows that somehow match.

Interestingly, before commercial dyes were available, the village weavers colored the pandan naturally: turmeric for yellow, atsuete for red, alogbate and bignay for violet. The festival dance itself was preceded by short theatrical presentations of how the pandan plant had saved them from economic disaster when the fishing becomes scarce. Or how the plant had become part of the history and culture of the community.

To incorporate the faith dimension, each dance contingent carried an “andas” of St. Peter, an altar with the saint's statue on it. The “andas” is different from the Holy Week carrozas in that they are carried on the shoulders of devotees and do not have wheels.

But one other standout in the presentations was the reminders on the fragility of the environment and the need to keep its balance. This isn't just a lesson they learned from the books, Java says. Since their handicraft relies on a plant, the pandan, the people here have kept strong sense of faith in nature, knowing that it is nature that nurtures them.

And that is something worthy of a festival to celebrate.*

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