Every 24th of June is the feast of St. John the
Baptist and unlike other towns where celebration is dousing each other with
water, in this small village in Aliaga, Nueva Ecija it will be muddy.
Barangay Bibiclat is a sleepy village whose most of its residents
are farmers, they celebrate in a different way, covering themselves with mud
and bundles of dried banana leaves as their cloak, it’s time for the “Taong
Putik Festival”.
Locally known as ‘pagsa-san juan’ or ‘doing a St. John’
devotees starts the celebration at dawn by going to the muddied rice fields and
starts covering themselves with packs of mud.
They then put on their bundled of banana leaves and wear
them overhead at cloaks then walk towards the parish church at the center of
the village.
Along the way, they collect candles to households for prayer
offering and lit in a grotto in front the church before the a celebration of mass.
These decades an old tradition is considered a ‘miracle’
among the townsfolk.
During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, Japanese
soldiers rounded up a group of male residents and about to be executed.
Just about to be killed, the good heaven rained hard. At
that time, It is a belief by some Japanese officers that this is a ‘divine
intervention’, as they believe in sun god - Amaterasu, they consider this as a
bad omen. And so the town’s men are freed and spared of their lives.
Today, the parish of St. John the Baptist has put sculptured
images of these men at the façade of the church as a reminder of the God’s
grace upon this town.
This merciful day believe to start the town’s celebration of
the feast of St. John the Baptist and the ‘Taong putik’.
