In places such as this, provincial place, slightly secluded, town fiestas are very important occasions. Fortunately, I was able to experience my fair share of town fiestas, including the Poblacion Fiesta which is the town proper.
Provincial fiestas are so much fun! They celebrate it for 3-days, the pre-fiesta, the fiesta itself, and the morning after the fiesta. And in these 3-days, there are always dances during night. There would be live band playing and people would be dancing around, whether it be hiphop or cha-cha or old school ballroom dances. And the foods are limitless! Every house that you enter in, you have to eat the food they serve otherwise, they would get slightly offended. They prepare 3-meals, even the breakfast after the day of the fiesta itself. It’s a joyous occasion which brings family members together as well as friends. It’s too bad these kinds of fiestas are not celebrated in Manila anymore.
POBLACION TOWN FIESTA (First week of June)
Poblacion is like the city proper of Siruma. This is where the hospital is located and where I stay in. The first day of the fiesta showcases different programs held in the school. What I enjoyed most are the mini-games situated all around the school area. These are what we called “Perya” games. For a mere 1peso (piso) you can win up to 100pesos if you’re lucky and you know how to stop haha. I was able to win 100php plus but then I opted to continue playing and I lost multiple times. In the evening of the first day, there is a dance being held. There are bands playing and alcohol drinking (of course). It was actually a fun experience for me (minus the part where there was a bit of a commotion and “knifing” incident). The morning after, just walk along the road and you would find yourself being called in by people in their houses to eat breakfast. Usual town fiesta breakfasts consists of “suman” (sticky rice), fried lumpia, and just a lot of foods.
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PAMINTAN TOWN FIESTA (Last week of June)
As seen in my previous posts , J was able to go here during our Naga-Siruma trip. Pamintan is the barangay known by its selling of dried fishes (Tuyo, Abo, etc). I love those dried fishes! I could literally eat them every day (poor kidneys). We were able to go here during lunch time of the 2nd day of their town fiesta, and still, the people does not disappoint with all their food giving. There was no electricity during that time but it did not stop them from giving us food. We were also able to buy some dried fishes to take home to Manila.
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BAHAO TOWN FIESTA (August)
I was not able to really experience this like I did in Poblacion because this barangay is about 30-minutes to 1 hour walk from Poblacion. We were only able to go there the morning after and have breakfast. As usual, the road going there is a bit of a rough road. If you know someone who has a habal-habal (motorcycle) ride, the travel would be faster. But if not, you can still walk to the barangay. Again, the people are amazing!
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Again, these are just the fiestas I was lucky enough to experience during my stay there. I'm sure that there are a lot more since there are 22 barangays in Siruma, so I'm assuming there are 22 fiestas in a year, all in all.
Up next, other things to do in Siruma!
Read more:
Surviving Siruma: An Introduction To An Unknown Island
Surviving Surima: Where to Stay and Places to Visit
Surviving Siruma: Things To Do in Siruma
Surviving Siruma: Food Tripping Galore
Surviving Siruma: A Summary
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