A Glimpse of Tuguegarao’s Culture
Tuguegarao have always a special place in my heart,
I lived in this city for more than 17 years with my family and what makes our family interesting is that are we came from other cultures like my Grandpa who is from Penablanca that speaks Itawis and have other cultural practices, and from the other side my Grandma is from Kalinga that speaks different language sometimes Ilocano and of course have a different cultural practices like how they dance in those color red cloths with a combinations of orange that is identical to chickens. But anyways that is my brief introduction of my family cultures and traditions. I am proud to be one of the local here. Tuguegarao city is known for its beautiful and lively culture and traditions and the people here is also respectful and approachable.
This is one of our traditions here the Afi festival that we celebrate yearly that shows our cultural environment and as we show this cultures is as much as how much we are proud to our culture.
This is Pancit Batil Patong one of our delicious dishes here in our city that makes our city famous. It has a lot of toppings including meat, eggs, chicharong bulaklak, and etc.
Also when we talked about infrastructure, Tuguegarao city have roman catholic cathedral that is almost 257 years old. This is one of our tourist attraction when tourist comes to my hometown.
Lets talk about the dialect of Tuguegarao City,
Tuguegarao City have three main dialect which is Ilocano, Itawes, and Ibanag. But lets focus on knowing Ilocano more since It was my family dialect and also the only dialect that I understand the most and used to.
Ilocano is originated from Ilocos Region that pass down to my hometown. Also The Ilocano people, also spelled "Ilokano", are one of the major ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines. Their origin is back to the northwestern region of Luzon, or in what are now the Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, and parts of Abra, Pangasinan, and Cagayan provinces. Ilocano also is one of the popular dialect here in Tuguegarao which is my hometown including my family, Ilocano is a big help shaping not only Tuguegarao city but the whole Region of Cagayan is familiar or mostly know how to speak the dialect.
When it comes to Ilocano cultures, we Ilocanos is known for it's hardworking and strong family ties or family oriented, also Ilocanos are very religious when it comes to religion but most of the time Ilocanos religion is Roman Catholic with deep devotion seen in festivals and traditions.
One of example of traditions of Ilocanos is what we called "Pamamanhikan" which means when a boy courting a girl, the boy should go to the girl house for introducing and I think the boy family should go too.
This is a example of what we called "Pamamanhikan".
For arts,
Ilocano are known for its Inabel weawing that is a traditional handwoven textile using local cotton.
Next we have burnay pottery that is large clay jars traditionally used for storing water, vinegar, and fermented food.
So in both arts that is my example.
Ilocanos have many more culture other than the example I shown, showing this culture and traditions makes Ilocanos exiting and interesting for tourist. Ilocano culture is all about being practical, hardworking, and close to family. Even with limited resources, they have built a strong and proud way of life whether it's through their flavorful food, beautiful weaving, or deep traditions. They're known for being thrifty or "Kuripot" but generous when it really matters. At the end of the day, Ilocanos show that strength, community, and love for tradition can go a long way in keeping their culture alive and interesting.
