KIBUNGAN, BENGUET HOLDS "PEDIT" FESTIVAL
Kibungan, Benguet, Nov. 14, 1997 - Visitors will have a chance to see real traditional religious rituals next weekend, when Kibungan holds a big festival to celebrate its founding anniversary. The festival was featured in an article written by Maurice Malanes for the newspaper TODAY.
Mayor Albert Mayamnes told Malanes that 13 pigs and several carabaos and cows will be slaughtered for the November 22 festival, "to show the visitors our genuine practice as done by our ancestors."
Kibungan, with a population of only 16,000, is only 67 kilometers from Baguio City, but it takes four hours of winding, rough and gruelling travel to reach from the City of Pines.
Kibungan will hold a religious feast called "kanyaw" or "pedit" which had long been a tradition and serves three purposes. It is a way to thank the gods and spirits for abundant harvests and productive livestock. It also serves as a social function which strengthens community unity and kinship. The feast is also seen as a way by which the host-family shares its wealth with the rest of the community.
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