Taong Putik Festival

TAONG PUTIK FESTIVAL is one of the religious festival in the Philippines. It is held during the 24th day of June at Bibiclat, Aliaga Nueva Ecija. People who are devotees of Saint John the Baptist are gathered. They will wear dried banana leaves and cover theirselves using muds. This is to show their devotion and thanksgiving to the patron.

         Devotees will go from house to house to ask for candles or even money to buy candles. For those persons who do not give any, devotees will wipe the mud on the stingy i and light all the candles, then they will pray for their intentions and for the blessings they received. This is followed by an outdoor mass to bless the day of the festival.

      After the mass, the devotees will proceed to the procession. The procession moves down Bibiclat’s main street and return to the church.

         Even the celebration of Taong Putik looks weird, the values and preparation for this is exceptional. This kind of celebration is criticized by others. According to them, it is more of a pagan festival and not a Catholic way of giving thanks to saints. But the churchmen of Nueva Ecija give credits to this incredible and different way of patronizing Saint John the Baptist. The people and the Church both agree on the way the festival goes. The important thing is that you are part of the festival and you have fun celebrating it. 

History of Taong Putik

Taong Putik Festival began with—or in some accounts the devotion to St. John the Baptist from which the festival comes from deepened due to—a miracle that took place in 1944 when the Philippine archipelago was occupied by Japanese forces.

         Local Filipino guerrilla killed several Japanese soldiers at the height of the Second World War. The Japanese army rounded up all men in the village to be executed in retaliation for the killing.

         The townsfolk fervently prayed to save their male kin from certain death. As the men were led to the plaza before a firing squad around noon time when the sun was at its peak and hottest, out of a sudden a downpour fell. The Japanese, who as a people worshiped the sun-goddess and believed that the imperial family descended from her, interpreted it as an omen that their plan was not aligned with the will of the heavens.

         Their execution did not push through.

         People rejoiced and rolled about in the mud. The miraculous turn of events intensified the devotion to St. John the Baptist. Water in the form of the rain that spared the lives of the male villagers is a symbol associated with the patron who baptized Jesus in the riverbank of Jordan according to the Bible.

         Other variations of the story exist. People in wartime era celebrated their success in evading capture from the invading Japanese army by rolling in mud. Another tale stated that people who were accused of being rebels took refuge in the chapel and covered their faces with mud to avoid being recognized by the Japanese who surrounded the place where they took refuge. Rain fell and the Japanese scampered for cover.

         Moreover, research from Central Luzon State University (CLSU) stated that the custom may have started when residents prayed to the patron to drive away snakes that inhabited the area and their request was granted. The name of the village, Bibiclat, means a place of snakes.