changing seasons

If there is one thing I will miss about my little hometown… it’s the Tsinelas Festival or more popularly known as Gat Tayaw “Tsinelas” Festival [which is named to honor Gat Tayaw - the noble founder of the town according to history]. It’s kinda like a “fair” where we showcase the products that our little town is known for – the tsinelas [which means slippers or footwear]… uraro biscuits [arrow root cookies]… lambanog [coconut liquor] … and other locally grown fruits and vegetables.

Gat Tayaw [the founder of the Liliw town] and his dog Bantay [we baptized the dog’s name ourselves].

Liliw is well-known for our slipper industry. In fact, Liliw is dubbed as the “Slipper Capital of the Philippines” because we make the best slippers in the whole country. Our slippers are known for its high quality footwear because slipper-makers use tis-tis… a material made from coconut palm tree… which is known for it’s strong and durable feature… for making those slippers.

Liliw Park where we [my brothers and I] used to play as kids.

Tsinelas Festival is a week-long town affair celebrated every summer [usually last week of April or 1st week of May]. There are lots of different activities during the festival - from parade to cultural presentation… from concerts to street party… from street dancing to beauty pageant. But what is more important about the festival is that… all slipper products are on sale. That is why; lots of people are coming over to take advantage of the low-priced high-quality footwear.

The new Liliw Trade Fair where Liliw-made Slippers are displayed and sold.

Aside from slippers… we are also proud of our uraro biscuit. It is a kind of cookies made from arrow root flour. “Lambanog” on the other hand, is synonymous to Liliw too. Lambanog is liquor made of coconut water. Coconut water is distilled to make lambanog. It tastes like vodka but it doesn’t give you a hang-over like vodka.

Decorations on one of the Slipper stores during the festival season.

A stall selling Uraro biscuits and other Liliw delicacies.

Lambanog barrels.

The Uraro biscuits.

This year, I missed the Gat Tayaw Tsinelas Festival because I am now based here in Maine. And perhaps, I will miss it for 3 or more years until I get my citizenship and the money to pay for my air fare to go back home [*wink]. And since I missed the festival my brother, sent me these photos to give me an idea how the festival was this year. Good thing I have a nice brother… who sent me photos… to make me jealous and miss home more. Hahahaha.

Additional Information:
Liliw, Laguna
Lambanog Making

Credits:
Sherwin of Abby and Win’s Blog for the You Tube Video
My brother Japol of keep of WANDERing for the photos.