Beauty pageant kicks off ‘Silhig’ festival

SWEEP HEARTS. Brangay Pakna-an’s lovelies carry broomsticks as they pose with barangay officials to launch the celebration of the ‘Silhig’ festival. (NORMAN V. MENDOZA)

The launching of a festival queen search last Friday kicked off activities by residents of barangay Pakna-an, Mandaue City for their “Silhig” festival.

This will be followed by a beauty pageant on Jan. 31 and a street dancing competition between seven clustered zones using the silhig a broomstick made of buri tree fiber from where the festival gets its name.

Now on its third year, the Silhig festival is held on a Sunday a week after the barangay fiesta on Feb. 1.
The street dancing competition will be held at the Tulay grounds in Baranagy Pakna-an.
Mandaue City officials and officials from Cebu province are expected to grace the event to be capped off by a fireworks display.

Pakna-an barangay chairman Malaquias Soco said the festival gives them a chance to showcase their “silhig” broomsticks, a source of livelihood for most residents.

“Gi-ship-out ni ang among silhig ngadto sa Iloilo, Iligan ug Manila, na export na sab ni makausa  (this has been shipped-out to Iloilo, Iligan and Manila, it has also been exported once),” Soco said.

He said 30,000 broom sticks are shipped to other areas in the country every month. Soco said 30 percent of his constituents are engaged in making broomsticks.

While the buri trees in their barangay are being toppled to give way to subdivisions, Soco said they source their supply from some towns in northern Cebu and Bohol province.