At First Buri Festival
Ilocano
Weavers Parade World’s Longest Buri Mat
A town in Ilocos Sur
tries to promote its products with the holding of the First Buri Festival
and the parading of the world’s longest buri mat measuring 2.4 kilometers.
BY ACE ALEGRE
Northern Dispatch
Reposted by Bulatlat
SAN JUAN, Ilocos Sur
(Dec. 29) — Thousands of Ilocano villagers, balikbayans (returning
migrant Filipinos) and tourists joined in the celebration along the main
streets of here with the holding of the First Buri Festival last January
3. The town of San Juan is known for manufacturing buri products.
Also known as century
plant, buri (Corypha elata Roxb.), is a palm from which three kinds
of fibers (i.e., buri, raffia, and buntal) are obtained. It is locally
known as silag. The buri palm has large fan-shaped leaves with stout
petioles ranging from two to three meters in length. The palm reaches a
height of 20 to 40 meters and its trunk has a diameter of one to 1.5
meters.
Buri is San Juan's
official product registered under the One Town One Product (OTOP) program
of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Clad in buri-inspired
costumes, from hats to slippers and even trinkets, street dancers added up
a joyous celebration of parading the world's longest buri mat.
Thousands of Ilocanos
queued along the streets with the 2.4-kilometer long and one-meter wide
buri mat. Residents consider it “a symbol of their undying love for the
cottage industry that they proudly call their own.”
The laying down of
the buri mat caused traffic all over town as the festival's parade and
street dancing began even under the scorching heat of the sun in this
northern Ilocos Sur town.
Though short of the
earlier target of weaving a four-kilometer buri mat, they were still able
to surpass the country’s unpublished world record on longest mat woven in
Basey town in Samar Province six years ago.
On September 20,
2000, hundreds of people paraded a more than one-kilometer long mat as a
highlight of Basey town's Banigan-Kawayan Festival. The one-meter wide
mat was woven for several weeks. However, the feat was not submitted as an
entry to the Guinness Book of World Records.
San Juan Mayor
Benjamin Sarmiento said that they failed to achieve their target of a
four-kilometer long mat because street dancers and parade revelers used up
a great deal of the raw materials for their costumes. “We had a problem
after we agreed that the parade’s participants will wear buri-inspired
attires.”
Sarmiento said that
weaving the mats started early on the second semester this year by all
local industry weavers in the town. Each weaver was assigned to weave a
five-meter long with more than a meter width mat. The mats were then
connected by sewing them from both sides.
RP's Buri Capital
San Juan Councilor
Proceso Ochosa said that the First Buri Festival was meant to promote the
buri industry in the local and world markets. “The launching of the
longest mat is the highlight of our buri festival this year and would be
staged annually with the inspiration to get the distinction of having
woven the world’s longest mat and promote buri to the world market.”
They also want San
Juan to be named "The Buri Capital of the Philippines” Ochosa added.
Buri palm trees are
abundant in Baranggays (villages) Cacandongan, Darao, Malammin, Caronoan,
Camanggaan, Immayos Norte and Barbar. Of the 32 baranggays in San Juan,
half of them are engaged in the buri industry.
“Buri weaving has
been a traditional industry in the town. The buri fibers are extracted
from the petiole, rolled and are weaved into mat, bags, holiday decors and
giftware and other novelty items like shoes, slippers, coin purses, pen
holders, window blinds, attaché cases, table accessories, wall papers,
desk organizers, screen dividers, decorative pillows, lampshades,
placemats, folders, "hula' skirts, other handicraft items as tying, decor
and wrapping materials,” Sarmiento said.
There’s nothing to be
wasted in the buri weaving industry as its midribs are also used in making
chairs,” he added.
Bigger and Better Next Year
Sarmiento said that
the second edition of the festival will be different because he asked the
weaving of a single mat measuring four kilometers long and more than one
meter wide as early as January next year.
The mat this year
will be brought to The Heritage Village in Vigan City, Baguio and Manila
through trade fairs and exhibits like the annual “Tawid ken Partuat”
exhibit in SM Megamall.
To improve the
quality of buri products as well as to conserve the availability of raw
materials, San Juan allotted an initial fund for the industry amounting to
P200,000 ($4,095, based on an exchange rate of P48.84 per US dollar) this
year. Sarmiento said that the amount was used for the acquisition of new
technologies in buri production and for financing the continuous training
and seminars for the weavers. “Actually, we established a Buri plant
nursery in connection with our program on massive plantation of buri to
anticipate the possible scarcity of raw materials in the future due to the
increasing demand for buri products.” Bulatlat
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