Binatbatan Festival

Binatbatan is a festival celebrated by the city of Vigan in Ilocos Sur. This town is popularly known for weaving the Iloco textile called “abel.” The main raw material for abel is the cotton. With the process of manufacturing this cloth, they are required at the initial stage to employ the use of two 18-inch-long sturdy bamboo sticks called batbat to beat the cotton pods and later separate the seeds from the fluff. Binatbatan is the beating process. This is the first method of making the woven cloth abel. 

Binatbatan festival originally has its roots from this historic town of Paoay and replicated by the City of Vigan because they also weave abel. Binatbatan became another Ilocano folk dance or an occupational dance. Performers of this dance maneuver in and out of the parallel sticks and the resulting rhythm and speed of the beating of sticks made a colorful and lively display. Since Binatbatan is celebrated annually, during this time of pandemic it has been celebrated in a different way. The usual street dancing competition seen on the streets of Vigan was converted through online ways and so other activities.

                The celebration of this festival has the main objective of promoting and preserving the livelihood or industry of the local fabric. With this kind of situation that we have due to the pandemic, we have to expect that for the upcoming years, this festival shall be celebrated in the same manner. Our resiliency will never separate us from our traditions to continually commemorate our culture.

Citations:

https://www.viganonline.com/images/binatbatanfestival.jpg

 https://ihttps://images.gmanews.tv/regionaltv/content_images/videos/2021/05/11/8_2021_05_11_20_35.jpgmages.gmanews.tv/regionaltv/content_images/videos/2021/05/11/8_2021_05_11_20_35.jpg