Frog Festival!

KOKAK, TUGAK FESTIVAL

Photo credit to: Edward Tuazon Garcia

Frog is the symbol of resiliency, flexibility and great leaps for a better future. The San Fernando Frog Festival takes place in Pampanga, Philippines every October of the year. It started since 2003 by the Most outstanding Kapampangan Awardee namely Ivan Anthony Heneres, a City Tourism officer; Rolan Quiambao, the City of San Fernando Pampanga Arts and Culture Council Chairman;and Robbie Tantingco, the Director of the Center for Capampangan Studies. The goal of Tugak Festival is to give further awareness, appreciation, and understanding in traditions of the Kapampangans Street Dancing Competition, free dance interpretation, Paduasan, frog cooking festival, frog olympics and frog mascot competition are some of the events during the festival.

Photo credit to: Edward Tuazon Garcia

The street dancing competition and free dance interpretation are the openings of the event. Public and private schools in San Fernando participates here. This activity exhibits the gracefulness, pride and the talents of the youths.

Paduasan, on the other hand,is a traditional way of catching frogs whererin contestants used paduas, a bamboo rod and a worm called bulateng tudtud attached at the end of the string. When the frog bites it, its tongue get tangled with the worm. The person now will be able to hurl the frog up in the air and let it fall in the net called panyapu. Paduasan requires special techniques, speed, and strong mind and body.

Pampanga is not just the “Lantern Capital of the Pilippines”, it is also the “Culinary Capital” of the country. The frog cooking festival showcases the amazing cooking skills of the Kapampangans. Betutu is an exotic food and frog is its main ingridient.

Frogs around in ricefields, which eat small insects and are actually larger than the normal frogs sold in the wet markets, are stuffed with “dahon ng tanglad” and ground pork. Betute is basically deep fried with a sauce of either vinegar or soy sauce.

The frog olympics, includes activities like jumping like a frog(long jump), frog race, and dressing up your frog competition. By simply imitating the skills of the frogs like hopping and jumping, it actually gives fun and excitement and at the same time, it promotes physical development and physical fitness.

Credits to: robinspinzon.com

The highlight of the festival is the Frog Mascot Competition. Like the street dancing and dance interpretation contest, private and public schools from San Fernando joins the amazing activity. Uniqueness or Originality, Creativity, Relevance to the theme is some of the criteria in judging the Champion. Originally, the festival had an official mascot named “Kokak Tugak” but the committee decided to have this competition to prove that the students in Pampanga are talented and gifted.

Tugak Festival is really great! This festival is one of a kind and it is not just for amusement and entertainment. It is also a festival that gives a lot of facts and details about the city. It doesn’t let the modern technology erase the contributions of the frogs. Its main goal actually is to preserve the traditions and to pass those informations to the next generations. 

By: Aira L. Tulabut