Kapampangan Blog - Home of Giant Lanterns

𝓞𝓻𝓪𝓵 𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓺𝓾𝓮 𝓣𝓻𝓪𝓭𝓲𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓼, 𝓕𝓸𝓵𝓴 𝓫𝓮𝓵𝓲𝓮𝓯𝓼 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓒𝓾𝓵𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓮

𝙎𝙖𝙣 𝙁𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙤, 𝙋𝙖𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙖: 𝙎𝘼𝙂𝘼𝙉𝘼 𝙆𝘼𝙍𝙀𝙉𝙂 𝙏𝙍𝘼𝘿𝙄𝙎𝙔𝙐𝙉

𝚃𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜, 𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚎𝚏𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚌𝚞𝚕𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗’𝚜 𝚌𝚞𝚕𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎. 𝙸𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚎 𝚝𝚠𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚎 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝚙𝚎𝚘𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚞𝚕𝚊𝚛 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚢. 𝙸𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚊 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚏𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝚂𝚊𝚗 𝙵𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚘, 𝙿𝚊𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚊.

𝗠𝗘𝗞𝗘𝗡𝗜, 𝗠𝗔𝗠𝗔𝗦𝗬𝗔𝗟 𝗧𝗔𝗠𝗨 𝗞𝗘𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗖𝗨𝗜𝗗𝗔𝗗 𝗦𝗔𝗡 𝗙𝗘𝗥𝗡𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗢 𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗣𝗔𝗠𝗣𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗔!

Ｆｒｏｇ Ｆｅｓｔｉｖａｌ （ＰＹＥＳＴＡＮＧ ＴＵＧＡＫ）

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.

𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐑: The images used in this post do not belong to me. Credits to the rightful owners.

𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒:
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