By Rosenda Alluad-Visaya
Cabagan, Isabela—The Pansi Festival here has gone online, with cooks from villagers and offices displaying their prowess in cooking “pansi,” an Ibanag word for pancit, Cabagan delicacy and showing their other prowess in mask making and other arts genre that ended today Thursday.
Mayor Christopher Mamauag said the festival has been annual event of Cabagan, a first-class town with 50,174 people according to the 2015 official census.
The old Cabagan has existed from 1646 to 1877 and was resurrected by the Spaniards into a new town by decree on January 25, 1877.
Home to its well-known “Pancit Cabagan,” villagers are always treated to gigantic servings of “Pansi Cabagan” in the past years but not this day due to the COVID-19 pandemic-imposed health protocols.
The pancit cooking event was witnessed online by village officials and folks instead of the usual personal fanfare.
Virtual events on E-tula, poster, online mural painting and dance were also done, and winners were awarded on Thursday.
Government officials hold the annual festivity as a tribute to this town’s thriving native noodle industry and the farmers’ bountiful harvest, although in a “simple way,” the mayor added.
The noodle has been forever etched in the history and culture of the villagers, he said, as a way of thanksgiving for the bountiful harvests of the farmers and for the ubiquitous pansit Cabagan that is synonymous with the town’s culture and heritage, Mamauag said.
However, the annual Kalesa, Kutseru, Kabayu (KKK) competition and inter-barangay calesa painting contests were scrapped due to health restrictions.