19/04/2022
๐๐ป๐ช๐ต ๐ค๐ท๐ฒ๐บ๐พ๐ฎ ๐ฃ๐ป๐ช๐ญ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท๐ผ, ๐๐ธ๐ต๐ด ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ต๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐พ๐ต๐ฝ๐พ๐ป๐ฎ
๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐๐ง๐ฃ๐๐ฃ๐๐ค, ๐๐๐ข๐ฅ๐๐ฃ๐๐: ๐๐ผ๐๐ผ๐๐ผ ๐๐ผ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ธ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ข. ๐ธ๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ต๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐ฟ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐.
๐ ๐๐๐๐ก๐, ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ฆ๐ฌ๐๐ ๐ง๐๐ ๐จ ๐๐๐ก๐๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ก ๐๐๐ฅ๐ก๐๐ก๐๐ข ๐ก๐๐ก๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ก๐๐!
๏ผฆ๏ฝ๏ฝ๏ฝ ๏ผฆ๏ฝ
๏ฝ๏ฝ๏ฝ๏ฝ๏ฝ๏ฝ ๏ผ๏ผฐ๏ผน๏ผฅ๏ผณ๏ผด๏ผก๏ผฎ๏ผง ๏ผด๏ผต๏ผง๏ผก๏ผซ๏ผ
Pyestang Tugak, also known as the San Fernando Frog Festival, is an annual celebration of the amphibian's cultural and environmental importance in the area.
Apart from being regarded as the Philippines' Christmas Capital, San Fernando, Pampanga is also home to a variety of frogs. Frogs have become a part of Kapampangan culture, particularly among the Fernandinos, due to their abundance in the rice fields. From a basic frog meal, the Kampampangans have created a vast range of frog food that has visitors, passers-by, and residents salivating. Not only that, but pamamaduas (traditional frog fishing) has become a regular bonding activity for every Fernandino family. These customs are undeniably important to the Kapampangans, particularly the Fernandino.
Children would head out for the rice fields, streams, and estuaries supplied by the Rio Grande de Pampanga at the beginning of the rainy season, when the town residents began growing rice. This marked the beginning of the frog-catching season, and the wet season finally turned into a frog-catching season. It was quite simple to catch frogs. The kids used a fishing rod and line to jiggle a black piece of fabric in mid-air to mimic flies. The frogs were rapidly put in reed vessels or bags as they leaped and consumed the cloth, to be treated afterwards with ash to remove their slime. Betute is a pun on the word betute (pufferfish), which is a phrase for a filled sausage meat or mincemeat. This was the beginning of the Kapampangan Frog Tradition.
Since then, the Fernandinos' rich heritage of pamamaduas tugak, or frog-catching, has been handed down from generation to generation. Today, one begins by digging for a kind of worm known as bulateng tudtud and stringing them together with a reed of cogon grass. Once the paduas, or a fishing rod-like tool, is affixed, one is ready to capture frogs.
Frogs have brought with them a number of traditions, including the usage of frog capturing instruments like the padus, panyapu, and bulateng tudtud as bait, as well as a diverse variety of frog food. The most renowned of them is the betute, a deep-fried frog packed with regular pork or traditional minced frog flesh. Then there are the adobong tugak, tinolang tugak, almondegas, torta, and frog burgers, to name a few.
However, owing to unavoidable development and urbanization, these traditions are rapidly fading. As a result, there is an urgent need to revive and propagate Kapampangan frog customs.
The Piestang Tugak, or Annual San Fernando Frog Festival, was born as a result of this. This arose from the Kapampangan habit of capturing frogs and preparing local amphibian delicacies.
The City Tourism Division and the Center for Kapampangan Studies took the lead in organizing the first-ever Piestang Tugak- the 1st Annual San Fernando Frog Festival on November 4, 2003 at WOW Northern Philippines in HILAGA (formerly Paskuhan). Because to the involvement of the academe and other sections of the Fernandinos, the festival's pilot staging was a major success, paving the door for expanded awareness of the frog heritage.
This year, in honor of the rich legacy of Kapampangan frog culture and to keep the noble notion alive, the City of San Fernando and the Pyestang Tugak 2011 Executive Committee are planning yet another massive festival to highlight and promote these vanishing customs. This is a program that aims to transform Fernandino culture and make this event a part of every Fernandino's life.
These rituals have unquestionably become an integral element of Kapampangan culture, which no one can deny. And it is up to the present generation of Kapampangans to keep these traditions alive and well for future generations to enjoy.
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐: The images used in this post do not belong to me. Credits to the rightful owners.
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City Information and Communications Technology Office (CICTO). (n.d.). Fiestang Tugak at the City of San Fernando. City of San Fernando - Christmas Capital of the Philippines. Retrieved April 18, 2022, from https://cityofsanfernando.gov.ph/forvisitors/fiestangtugak
