The best way to celebrate fiesta in La Loma is to dress up and parade roasted pigs in the annual Lechon Festival.
What better way to celebrate fiesta in La Loma than to, well, dress up and parade roasted pigs (lechon) in the annual La Loma Lechon Festival or Parada ng mga Lechon? After all, La Loma is the lechon capital of the Philippines.
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| Lechon or whole roast pigs that were on display |
La Loma Lechon Festival [Parada Ng Mga Lechon] with Kids
Ask any food-loving Filipino and you will most often find lechon included in their list of favorite food. For those who are not aware, lechons are whole roast pigs. The most prized part of the lechon is its crunchy skin that is best eaten when dipped in sweet-sour liver sauce.
Brief History of the La Loma Parada ng mga Lechon Festival
The La Loma Lechon Festival (Parada ng mga Lechon) was launched more than 10 years ago as a promotional effort and as a celebration of the main source of livelihood of the district of La Loma in Quezon City, which is selling of lechons.
The Parada ng mga Lechon is celebrated every third Sunday of May. Since then, it has become a main attraction in La Loma, drawing quite a good number of tourists and spectators from around Metro Manila and nearby provinces. A most awaited part of the celebration is that, after the parade, the lechons are chopped and distributed to residents, visitors, as well as participants in the festival.
Our La Loma Lechon Festival experience
Last May 16, 2011, I accepted an invitation from my good friend Deeday to watch the Lechon Festival or parade of lechons at their place in La Loma. I thought it would be amusing to see all those succulent roasted pigs in colorful costumes and positioned in various made-up scenes in vibrant floats and carriages.
Deeday and I met at UP at around 10 am with hopes of jogging a few rounds at the Acad Oval. However, we eventually dropped our initial plan to jog around the acad Oval because of sheer laziness. As such, we proceeded straight to La Loma instead. We were early, it was just 10:30 AM so we decided to just take a walk around the area and work up a sweat.
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| Being playful with my shadow |
We really had no idea when the parade would start. So by 12 noon, we decided to head to Shakey's for some "light" lunch because we were already feeling hungry. After lunch, we went back to Deeday's house to rest a bit from the heat and just wait there for the parade to arrive.
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| There were loud drumbeats for an even more festive mood |
The Lechon Parade
The whole of La Loma was in a fiesta mood, as can be expected, with many people lining the sidewalks. We were among those people who were eagerly waiting for the Parada ng mga Lechon to finally begin.
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Dressed as a royal couple
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The parade started a bit late at around 1:00 PM. Children, as well as adults, were all on the sidewalks excitedly trying to get a good view of the lechons on parade.
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Lechons on a horse-drawn carriage
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Faint drumbeats from a few blocks away signaled that the parade was nearby. When the parade finally came into view, the spectators were obviously thrilled to see the "stars" of the fiesta. There were drumbeats and there were street dancers. There were also countless lechons on display and decked in colorful clothes and accessories.
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| Under the sea |
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Dressed as the Little Mermaid
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| People wearing lechon masks |
Aside from the dancing band, the parade is really just all about lechons that are dressed and decorated in various ways and mounted in colorful floats. It was such a spectacle with pigs dressed as princes and princesses, mermaids, and superheroes, just to name a few. There were street performers but they ask for a fee if you would like to see them dance and do acrobatics.
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| Dressed as Captain Barbell |
Before watching the parade, we were actually looking forward to having lechon. However, with all the lechons that we saw that day, we found it quite impossible to even have the slightest craving for crispy, fatty pork skin.
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| Senior citizens' float |
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| Dressed in drum and lyre attire |
The end of the parade of floats signaled the most anticipated portion of the festivities -- free lechon that was to be distributed to the residents of La Loma, resulting in kilometric queues.
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Epilogue
When the parade had finished, Deeday and I decided to stroll around the La Loma area and marvel at the old houses as we waited for the evening procession.
Later that night, we had coffee and chatted for a while. I went home early that evening as we were both tired and there was work the following day.
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I can see that you had a wonderful time there. It does sound fun. It was lovely reading about your experience at the Lechon Festival in La Loma.
ReplyDeleteThe photographs makes me think about the immense fun you must have had actually being present in the festival. Hope to read more about your adventures.
ReplyDeleteI would love to attend a Lechon Festival. It looks like a lot of fun. I love pork, and the fact that it was free for residents sounds awesome. I love the first picture...yummy! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you for dropping by! Lechon is good, you should try it when you visit the Philippines. There are different varieties but you should try the ones in Quezon City and Cebu City.
ReplyDeleteI can't get enough of the decorated pigs. What a great idea! Thanks for sharing (:
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness I miss lechon. We get lechon here but it's not the same! Know that I am green (very green) with envy!
ReplyDeleteOh wow that sounds like a lot of fun!! The photos are also awesome love how its all so colourful!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun time! Those displays are very pretty. People are so creative.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of this but those masks look scary!
ReplyDeleteWow, sounds like a lot of fun! Fiestas are definitely better when you join the celebration and go out in the streets to see the parade. Although, the pig heads dressed in human clothes are quite creepy.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame you for not jogging. I wouldn't have done either haha. Sounds like you had a lot of fun. I'd love to go.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a fun festival, I love all the bright colours in the procession and I wouldn't blame you for not jogging!
ReplyDeleteMeron palang parada ng litson sa La Loma? To think I lived near there for decades and I never knew about that! Nag crave tuloy ako ng litson!
ReplyDeleteVery fun festival from what I see. There are so many colors and people. Personally didn't like the "decorated pigs".
ReplyDeleteAng sarap! Pahinging sawsawan! Haha. Love their creativity on how they dress the lechon. :)
ReplyDeletelooks like you had a wonderful time! Never heard of this festival before! looks fun
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing festival, the photo are simply amazing! Very creative! Pinned your post!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun festival, Looks like you had a wonderful time. I like all the decorations they are very neat!
ReplyDeletehttp://xoxobella.com
Lechons are really amazing especially when they are dressed. Such a wondrous event this is!
ReplyDeleteSurely it was a fun day. I wonder how many lechons were used during the parade. Funny but when I read the part free lechon distributed to residents, i felt a little envious. hehehe.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard about this festival. It looks so colorful and I bet, you had so much fun! Thanks for sharing this post with us! :)
ReplyDeleteI really love eating lechon, especially lechon skin, yummy, you made me crave right now, hahaha, those lechons in dress are awesome,
ReplyDeleteThe festival looks like so much fun! And I love all of the bright, festive colors. So glad you had a great time! XO
ReplyDeleteAnna || A Lily Love Affair
OOh I like these kind of cultural festival, food, music, dance, costumes, I like the atmosphere so much ! We have lots of those celebrations in Italy ;)
ReplyDeleteI never attended this festival but we have relatives who participates in the event. Hopefully we can watch too and we can taste some of that yummy lechon.
ReplyDeleteLechon is my fave Filipino food ever!! Hope i can attend a lechon festival someday .
ReplyDeleteOh, poor piggies! Hehehe! I am not a fan of lechon. I'm sure this is a big event though as a lot of Filipinos loooove lechon! Is La Loma lechon better than Cebu lechon? I only have that for comparison.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a nice carnival atmosphere out there. And with some good food i suppose
ReplyDeleteI don't know how I feel about a festival that uses pigs bodies as puppets for the entertainment of the audience. It seems weird to me but I guess every place has its habits.
ReplyDeleteWow a lechon fiesta, I would love to attend one. I think it would be such a spectacle to see all those pigs being paraded. The mermaid pig is so cute!
ReplyDeleteWhoah..... Lechon, I love them so
ReplyDeleteMuch! It is so cute to see them in costumes... This is somewhat the same as balayan festival's lechon festival
Wow! I never attended such festival and it looks like fun! Parading lechons in the streets are quite weird and peculiar for some but it surely does bring entertainment to everyone! Lechon is one of Philippines' delicious foods and I just miss eating such! :)
ReplyDeleteOh my, I have never seen this in my life. All those pig heads and pigs. I know this is a very important tradition. But it's a bit new to me haha! Have to get used to this. Glad you enjoyed!
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