Banig - Festivals - San Juan, Ilocos Sur's Buri Festival

San Juan, Ilocos Sur's Buri Festival

Also known as century plant, buri (Corypha elata Roxb.), is a palm from which three kinds of fibers (i.e., buri, raffia, and buntal) are obtained. It is locally known as silag. The buri palm has large fan-shaped leaves with stout petioles ranging from two to three meters in length. The palm reaches a height of 20 to 40 meters and its trunk has a diameter of one to 1.5 meters.

Buri is San Juan's official product registered under the One Town One Product (OTOP) program of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

On January 3, 2006 during the holding of the First Buri Festival, thousands of Ilocanos queued along the streets with the 2.4-kilometer long and one-meter wide buri mat. Residents consider it “a symbol of their undying love for the cottage industry that they proudly call their own.”

Though short of the earlier target of weaving a four-kilometer buri mat, they were still able to surpass the country’s unpublished world record on longest mat woven in Basey town in Samar Province six years ago.

On September 20, 2000, hundreds of people paraded a more than one-kilometer long mat as a highlight of Basey town's Banigan-Kawayan Festival. The one-meter wide mat was woven for several weeks. However, the feat was not submitted as an entry to the Guinness Book of World Records.

San Juan Mayor Benjamin Sarmiento said that they failed to achieve their target of a four-kilometer long mat because street dancers and parade revelers used up a great deal of the raw materials for their costumes.

Sarmiento said that weaving the mats started early on the second semester of the year by all local industry weavers in the town. Each weaver was assigned to weave a five-meter long with more than a meter width mat. The mats were then connected by sewing them from both sides.

San Juan Councilor Proceso Ochosa said that the First Buri Festival was meant to promote the buri industry in the local and world markets. “The launching of the longest mat is the highlight of our buri festival this year and would be staged annually with the inspiration to get the distinction of having woven the world’s longest mat and promote buri to the world market.”

They also want San Juan to be named "The Buri Capital of the Philippines” Ochosa added.

Buri palm trees are abundant in Baranggays (villages) Cacandongan, Darao, Malammin, Caronoan, Camanggaan, Immayos Norte and Barbar. Of the 32 baranggays in San Juan, half of them are engaged in the buri industry.