‘Dancing eggs’ in a town fiesta

 

SAN JOSE—Dancing eggs. It’s more fun in the Philippines, particularly the country’s egg capital.

Street dancers clad in colourful costumes with eggs in it gave color to this place’s annual fiesta called the Sinuam Festival.

As early as five in the morning, students from the municipality’s public elementary and high schools crowed loud to begin the three-hour parade. As they danced while some residents were readying their meals and eggs for breakfast, cheers from schoolmates roared at sunrise.

The sight to behold was the dancers’ costumes, some in batik linen and with the colors black, gold, pink, and red in them. Dancers wearing that costume swayed while holding on to egg baskets.

Some wore brown feathery costumes, matching their early-morning make up. Some wore all black tights, with their hands swaying like they’re flying while these ladies were balancing three dark brown pots on top of their heads.

These annual early-morning street dances to celebrate this first-class municipality’s foundation day are a serious matter to these students and even to their choreographers. Joining the festival is a pleasure for 18-year-old high school senior Aljohn Bautista of the Dr. Bonifacio A. Masilungan National High School. “Tiring, yet very enjoyable and all efforts are paid off after our performance.”

“You have to put yourself, your passion, unto them,” says 22-year-old Chris Medrano, Bautista’s choreographer and now on his 11th year choreographing dance routines.

And at 10, Jayve Escamilla of Lapu-Lapu Elementary School enjoyed this year’s experience even if he contributed P1,000 for his school’s performance during the Sinuam Festival.

So with the effort these young residents showed at the Sinuam, everybody wins, says a certain Ka Dado who is one of the prime movers of this year’s festival. He said all participants won prizes, and no grand prize winners were announced.

But there’s more than just dancing eggs.

There’s the sinuam itself, a local egg soup variety, with its various preparations showed and shared unto residents and tourists.

San Jose was established on April 26, 1765 as the old San Jose de Malaquing Tubig. Though the town is good for planting coffee, lanzones and black pepper, San Jose’s economy thrives with a robust poultry and piggery industry and the municipality supplies eggs to nearby provinces and to Metro Manila.

This year’s the 247th foundation day of this municipality (found southwest of Lipa City). Apart from the street dancing, Sinuam 2012 also had other activities: a three-kilometer Earth Day Fun Run, a boxing tournament, the “Mutya ng San Jose” beauty pageant followed by a motorcade and a float parade by that pageant’s winners, and the Padyak Tanim (which is led by Vice President Jejomar Binay), and a bike-for-a-cause.

What greeted the municipality also was an award from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG): a seal of good housekeeping, a good local governance award given to local government units.

As well, San Jose Mayor Entiquio Briones inaugurated the Eduard LL. Umali Bldg. which was inaugurated during the festival. A new barangay hall and a day care center were also inaugurated during the April 21-26 festival.

But none of these parallel activities outdid the dancers and the “dancing eggs” which were tourists’ and local residents’ pleasures that April 21 morning.

What a rewarding experience here, says 31-year-old sales executive Efren Andal, a first-time attendee of the sinuam festival. It’s “really fun” here too, says companion entrepreneur Jerwin Matibag.  “It seems nice to ride a bike around here.”

If you do, especially during the sinuam festival, watch out for those flying hard-boiled eggs. They were flying all over the place.

About Jeremaiah Opiniano