Pandayan Festival

Overview

The Pandayan Festival is held in Barangay Lonoy, in the upland part of Jagna, and it is organised around an occupation rather than a crop or a landmark. Panday in Cebuano means carpenter; pandayan is the place where the carpentry is done. The name was chosen because the parish patron is St Joseph the Worker, who was himself a carpenter, and because carpentry is what the eight upland barangays under the parish actually do.

That gives the festival an unusually direct purpose. It was conceived not only as a devotional celebration but as a way to put local carpentry and handicraft work in front of buyers — the founding theme translates as “towards the economic advancement of the family.”

That economic framing sets the Pandayan Festival apart from Jagna’s other two civic celebrations. Where the Calamay Festival in the poblacion each April promotes a food product, and Jagna’s own September town fiesta honours St Michael the Archangel with no stated commercial aim, Lonoy’s festival was built from the start around linking a trade — carpentry — to buyers who might not otherwise pass through this upland parish. The eight barangays under Lonoy’s jurisdiction depend on carpentry and handicraft work as an income source in a part of Jagna too far inland to draw on the port economy or the coastal dive and beach attractions closer to town, so a festival that puts their output on public display functions as a market day dressed in devotional colours.

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History

The parish of Lonoy was created by an Episcopal Decree signed by Bishop Christian Vicente Noel of Talibon on 27 February 1999, with jurisdiction over eight barangays, independent of the mother parish in Jagna town. The first Pandayan Festival followed on 27 February 2008, marking the parish’s ninth anniversary. It was the initiative of the parish priest, Fr Epifanio Gupita, who wanted an annual occasion that would let the community show skills that otherwise had no public showcase.

The first street-dancing competition was won by the Lumad Lonoyanons of the host barangay, who also took the award for best portrayal of the festival theme.

Lonoy’s own history runs deeper than the 1999 parish decree. The barangay is also the site of the Battle of Lonoy, fought on Easter Sunday 1901 during the Philippine-American War, when Captain Gregorio “Goyo” Caseñas led roughly 413 Bohol fighters — armed mostly with daggers, machetes, and spears against American firearms — in an ambush remembered locally as the Lonoy Massacre. A 1958 historical marker at the site commemorates the battle, and Caseñas is separately honoured by a monument in Jagna’s town plaza. The Pandayan Festival’s carpentry theme and the barangay’s combative 1901 history sit side by side in local memory without much overlap — one a story of loss, the other a yearly celebration of a trade that has quietly sustained the same barangays since.

Timing

27 February, the parish anniversary. The date is fixed rather than movable — it derives from the 1999 decree, not from the liturgical calendar — and is preceded by a nine-day novena in honour of St Joseph the Worker.

Note that this is distinct from Jagna’s own town fiesta, which honours St Michael the Archangel in September, and from the Calamay Festival in the same municipality in late April. Jagna has three separate celebrations on three separate anchors.

Location and Getting There

Barangay Lonoy sits in the uplands above Jagna town, on the province’s south-east coast. Jagna is roughly 1.5 to 2 hours from Tagbilaran by bus or van; reaching Lonoy from Jagna town means a habal-habal or a hired vehicle up into the interior. Ask locally about road conditions in the wet months.

What to Expect

• A nine-day novena and a procession of the image of St Joseph the Worker
• The Carpentry and Handicrafts Fair — the component that distinguishes this festival, with work from the eight parish barangays displayed at booths
• An inter-barangay basketball tournament
• The street-dancing competition, which is the main draw, with contingents from the upland barangays in costume

Practical Info

• Timing: 27 February; confirm the current programme with the parish or the Jagna municipal tourism office
• Entrance: free for the street and church events
• Accommodation: none to speak of in Lonoy; Jagna town has limited options and Tagbilaran or Anda are the practical bases
• This is a barangay-scale parish festival, not a provincial spectacle — expect a local occasion that welcomes visitors rather than one built for them

Related

• All Bohol festivals by month
• Things to do in Bohol in February
• Jagna
• Bohol food & culture
• When to visit Bohol