The Devotion of PagSa-San Juan (Taong Putik)

As promised, I received a copy of Fr. William's article entitled THE DEVOTION OF "PAGSA-SANJUAN: Historical and Theological views. I would have wanted to paste the entire paper here but I assume he'll be posting it in his own blog. So I'll just copy and paste the historical portion here.

June 24 is observed as the feast day of Saint John the Baptist In Aliaga, Nueva Ecija, in Barangay Bibiclat, hundreds of devotees of the village's patron saint, John the Baptist, transform themselves into "SANJUAN" . It is an event, a religious experience for the parishioners.

Nobody knows exactly when the “DEVOTION OF PAG-SASANJUAN” started. One legend says the image of the patron saint which was brought to Bibiclat by early Ilocano settlers, helped in driving away poisonous snakes from the village. The name "Bibiclat" came from the Ilocano word "biclat" meaning snake. Another legend says that when Japanese soldiers during World War II were about to execute all the men in the village in retaliation for the death of 13 fellow soldiers, it rained so hard that the male villagers had to be herded into the church to seek shelter. After a while, the Japanese soldiers had a change of mind and set their captives free. The residents attributed this to a miracle of Saint John the Baptist, and vowed to pay homage to him on his feast day by wearing costumes patterned after his attire -- this time, using native materials.

Once a year before dawn, the devotees silently emerge from the darkness, covered head to toe in mud, dried vines and banana leaves. The roads are filled with the San Juan Bautista devotees, as they go house to house quietly begging for coins to buy candles.

Candles in hand, they meekly gather at the church where mass brings intent prayer and deep meditation. Devotees put mud on their faces and bodies to symbolize their humility when asking the Almighty for forgiveness for the sins they have committed their spirit longing for peace and their bodies seeking health, the air becomes eerily silent, save for the officiating priest's passages.

The celebration starts in the eve of June 24 with the devotees applying mud all over their bodies and darting the dried materials of their “costume”. At dawn they would begin to march to the Parish Church where a mass would be held, and along the way they would ask for coins from house to house to buy candles to be erected on the altar of their patron saint.

The parishioners also make the festival a time for thanking God for the bountiful harvest, and good health in the year that passed, and asking for the same in the year ahead.

SO there it is, like what he said, the celebration of San Juan Bautista's Feast in our town is not being done for a show. It is popularly known as Taong Putik but it has deeper religious meanings for the devotees and non-devotees but residents of this barangay/ town.