Every year, on June 24, Catholic devotees in the village of Bibiclat in Aliaga, Nueva Ecija celebrate the feast of Saint John the Baptist with a ritual that has attracted tourists in recent years. The devotees of the “Pagsa-San Juan” call themselves “Taong Putik,” literally “mud people.”
They wake up before sunrise, cover their faces and bodies with mud from the surrounding rice fields and don dried banana leaves also soaked in mud. And then they walk in a solemn procession to the Catholic church. Along the way, the villagers would beg for candles or money that they would offer before the image of the saint in the diocesan shrine during a mass. .
The ritual, which was supposed to have started during the Spanish colonial period, became more popular during the Second World War when Japanese soldiers occupied the town.
This year 2024 marks the 46th iteration of the festival that was stopped for two years during the Covid-19 pandemic.
(Text and photos by Jimmy A Domingo)
Mata Press 
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