Think what they may, these rituals are headed for perpetuation and may entice more adherents as the reasons for their annual observance are unfolded.
The rituals are “Pagsa-San Juan”, popularly called “Taong Putik Festival” in Bibiclat, Aliaga, Nueva Ecija and “Araquio” in Peñaranda town.
That in Bibiclat is every June 24 while in Peñaranda, in Barangay Sto. Tomas, is on the first week-end of May. Both rituals were documented separately years ago by two professors of the Central Luzon State University (CLSU).
In “Pagsa-San Juan”, the participants turn themselves into “taong putik” or “mud people”. They are devotees of the village’s patron saint, St. John the Baptist, the Biblical character who baptized Jesus Christ.
As early as 3 a.m., male and female devotees go out where there is farm mud, soak their prepared habiliment of vines and banana leaves, and apply cakes of mud in their almost bare body particularly their face to be incognito.
They, according to the study, emulate the beggarly garment of the Biblical character described as wearing “a raiment of camel’s hair and a leather girdle about his loins” and “dirty slippers soaked in mud”.
The devotees then, as they walk to the direction of the church, go from house to house to beg for alms, like money or candles. The candles are lighted during the Mass and the money is given as church donation.
After the early morning Mass, the “taong putik” cleanse themselves and join the fiesta revelry.
The ritual, the study said, was brought by the settlers from Lapog, Ilocos Sur in the late 1800s. One myth said Bibiclat, that time, was abounded by a deadly snake and the prayers to St. John made the scaly reptile leave the place. The name of the village, it was learned, came from the Ilocano word “biclat” which means snake.
Another legend said that through the intercession of the patron saint the lives of all males in that village were saved from execution by the Japanese soldiers. It said the condemned, who were arrested in retaliation for the death of 13 Japanese soldiers, were exposed under the sun facing their executioners and a Japanese officer.
But it rained hard and the officer and soldiers took shelter inside the chapel. Hours later, they had a change of heart and set free their captives.
Those “miracles” made the residents carry on the special ritual of “Pagsa-San Juan” in honor of their patron saint.
The study further said the devotees participate in the ritual as a form of gratitude for an answered personal supplication. Or that they promised their parents to continue the tradition of being a “Taong Putik” owing to a past big favor obtained by the family through the saint’s intercession.
2-day ritual
On the other hand, the “Araquio” in Peñaranda, a town in the eastern part of this province, is a theatrical-ritual staged for two days. It celebrates the finding of the cross on which Jesus Christ was believed to have been crucified. Titled “Flores de Mayo”, it revolves on the conflict of two warring groups – the Christians in the Medieval European kingdom and the Muslims in the Middle Eastern fiefdom.
Originally staged in 1880, the araquio is described as a local genre of “komedya”, a colorful theatrical play of the conflicts between the Christians and Muslims in an earlier time.
Although it has 16 major characters and eight minor players, it calls for the participation of devotees particularly in the part of the play in which the search and finding of the cross are staged on 12 backyards where simulated hills of earth and twigs and leaves of trees are installed. Community participation, in the form of dance ritual, is also an awaited part of the play.
“The play’s character train for several months under three “maestros” (araquio teachers) to depict the roles called for in the ten subtitles of the script. They recite their lines in “decho” which is stylized delivery with unique intonation accompanied by hand gestures,” Ibarra said.
Wearing colorful costumes, with the Christians distinguished by a “banda” (sash) and the Muslims by a feathered headdress, they move on the stage in formations such as “estrado” (u-shape), “ehersito” (semi-circle), “rebista” (diagonal), “panagaan” (forward-backward), and “paradang pa-krus” (crossshaped).
The play is also staged in different week-ends in May in other villages of Peñaranda.
The CLSU researchers were one in saying that “Pagsa- San Juan” and “Araquio” live on and on because they are sustained by faith and devotion by the devotees.
“It’s the devotees humble bridge of showing the family or individual gratitude to the religious icons for healing incurable ailments or delivery from grave problems,” the researcher of the ritual in Bibiclat said.
“Unity of purpose, ancestral adhesion, unification of tribal strength, and shared experiences are the unspoken attributes that make Araquio survive the passage of time,” said the researchers.
