Thousands partake of biggest ‘patupat’

Lang-ay Festival highlight

Dexter A. See

 BONTOC, Mountain Province – Thousands of residents and visitors awaited the early afternoon thunderstorm to stop before partaking of the biggest ‘patupat’ and the traditional ‘sinab-ang’ which are two of the primary delicacies of the province that were served to them by local organizers of the province’s 50th founding anniversary and Lang-ay festival during Lang-ay on the Street, one of the major highlights of this year’s lined up activities.

Residents and visitors positioned themselves along the 500-meter main road in front of the Bontoc public market to await the unveiling of the biggest ‘patupat’ and ‘sinab-ang’ when the early afternoon rains started to pour but the rain did not stop the people from moving out of their positions and still waited for at least an hour for the rain to stop and for them to have a chance to partake of the local delicacies.

Paulino Tumapang, chairman of the Lang-ay Festival Organization, said the over 50 members of the Afeo and Fuyayeng womens’ organizations took three days to prepare the biggest ‘patupat’ that had a dimension of 6 meters long and 4 meters high.

The ingredients of the biggest ‘patupat’ included 500 kilos of ‘diket’ or sticky rice, 50 kilos of brown sugar and 360 pieces of coconut which were grated.

“We encountered various challenges in our effort to provide a distinct identity for Mountain Province in the conduct of our annual Lang-ay festival but we were able to hurdle the said obstacles through our combined efforts with the support of the people and officialdom of the province. We want to sustain our efforts to provide new attractions in the future staging of the Lang-ay festival,” Tumapang said.

Aside from the biggest ‘patupat’ and the traditional ‘sinab-ang,’ Lang-ay organizers also served to the public some 5,000 pieces of well wrapped ‘patupat’ that were prepared by the local ‘patupat makers’ to allow the residents and visitors alike to enjoy their attendance to the festival highlights.

Gov. Bonifacio Lacwasan, Jr. said the celebration of the province’s golden foundation anniversary and 13th Lang-ay festival could be attributed to the overwhelming support of the private and government sectors that pooled their time, effort and resources to make sure that the different activities that were lined up for the week-long festivities will be at par with the standards of hosting major events held in the province.

 “We should give credit to where credit is due. We were able to successfully hurdle the obstacles that confronted us through our unity, teamwork and solidarity as well as our love for Mountain Province. We must sustain the momentum that we were able to establish for us to be successful in our future endeavors,” Lacwasan said.