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Created on Sunday, 14 June 2009 05:13

On June 10, 2009, the town of Baroy, Lanao del Norte once again celebrated its colorful and festive “Lechon Festival.” Unfortunately, I was and am still thousand miles away from Baroy at this very moment, so obviously I missed the event, failed to witness the colorful parade of lechon and most of all I was left in vain imagining the crispy lechon of my hometown. To get myself out from this very despairing circumstance…LOL…, let me share here last year’s lechon festival celebration of Baroy where I was lucky enough to be able to attend the festive town affair. Yes indeed, for the very first time I was present when the town celebrated the colorful “Lechon Festival” last June 10, 2008. “Lechon Festival” is a festive yearly celebration of the town with the colorful parade of lechon highlighting the event. The colorful parade of artistically and creatively decorated “lechon” presented by every barangays was a crowd-puller. The parade originated at Lanao del Norte National Comprehensive High School or LNNCHS and ended at the town’s tourism plaza. The event was obviously a positive gesture for the town of Baroy to show off to the whole nation its specialty in producing the most tasty and most crispy lechon.

At the town’s plaza, I observed how member barangays of the town did their part to make the event more exciting by constructing booths made from local materials such as bamboo and nipa. Sports and parlor games added more fun to the event. Unfortunately, due to the intermittent rain in the afternoon, basketball game was cancelled. But the rain failed to completely spoil the fun when the “tuba” (Mindanao’s version of the popular “lambanog” in Batangas) drinking competition and “dinuguan” or pork blood stew eating competition kicked off. The town of Baroy still doesn’t have much to offer to tourists at present.

But with proper program in developing tourism in the region, chances are, this unique and colorful seasonal event - the lechon festival - will boast tourism in the area and will bring the town of Baroy to the forefront. Being a resident of Baroy, Lanao del Norte, I am very much optimistic that the “lechon festival” will be as appealing as its taste to lure tourists to the own of Baroy in the likes of the “Sinulog Festival” in Cebu or the “Dinagyang Festival” in Iloilo.

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