Pahinis Festival

 Laua-an adapts brown sugar or locally known as "muscuvado" as its One Town One Product (OTOP). Since the Municipality is famous for it, local fittingly named Laua-an's banner festival as "Pahinis". Pahinisis a native term derived from "PAHINING" that means cleaning and getting ready all paraphernalia, materials, and tools needed in manufacturing muscuvado out from sugar cane. Since the exact foundation day of the Municipality is every 1st of January and is considered a legal holiday, the local administration aptly moved the day in commemorating the anniversary celebration of the establishment of LAua-an as a municipality.

      PAHINIS FESTIVAL is celebrated on the last week of the month of January featuring the native games and sports. Its highlight is the tribe competition under the beat of drums and other local instruments with participants depicting rituals and practices performed for a bountiful harvest and good commence of muscovado production. It also showcases other farm and livelihood products of the people.


      PAHINIS is more than just giving honor to the Municipality but also to her sons and daughters who have been successful in their chosen career. PAHINIS is a day that unites all people from all walks of life for a meaningful, deserving and promising socio-cultural and economic event.

 Laua-an adapts brown sugar or locally known as "muscuvado" as its One Town One Product (OTOP). Since the Municipality is famous for it, local fittingly named Laua-an's banner festival as "Pahinis". Pahinisis a native term derived from "PAHINING" that means cleaning and getting ready all paraphernalia, materials, and tools needed in manufacturing muscuvado out from sugar cane. Since the exact foundation day of the Municipality is every 1st of January and is considered a legal holiday, the local administration aptly moved the day in commemorating the anniversary celebration of the establishment of Laua-an as a municipality.


      PAHINIS FESTIVAL is celebrated on the last week of the month of January featuring the native games and sports. Its highlight is the tribe competition under the beat of drums and other local instruments with participants depicting rituals and practices performed for a bountiful harvest and good commence of muscovado production. It also showcases other farm and livelihood products of the people.


      PAHINIS is more than just giving honor to the Municipality but also to her sons and daughters who have been successful in their chosen career. PAHINIS is a day that unites all people from all walks of life for a meaningful, deserving and promising socio-cultural and economic event.



Source: http://michaelmic16.50webs.com

“Dancing Nation: A Talentadong Pinoy Special Edition”

Laua-an, Antique troupe wins Talentadong Pinoy’s first ever dance for a cause

By Edwin P. Sallan, InterAksyon.com

February 4, 2013 · 9:32 am

Representatives of Laua-an, Antique receive the P1 million cash prize at the conclusion of the grand finals on Sunday.

A spectacular performance from 300 dancers from the small town of Laua-an, Antique was rewarded with P1 million in cash in the first ever “Dancing Nation: A Talentadong Pinoy Special Edition” Sunday night on TV5.

Beating equally impressive dancers numbering between 100 to 200 plus each from Alaminos, Pangasinan; Infanta, Quezon; Jose Panganiban, Camarines Norte; Tupi, South Cotabato: Rodriguez, Rizal; and Calauag, Quezon, the Laua-an dancers impressed the panel of judges composed of Mac Alejandre, Jose Javier Reyes, Audie Gemora, Arnell Ignacio, Alice Dixson, Ruby Rodriguez and Regine Tolentino, who all had their own particular favorites among the seven competing dance troupes.

In the spirit of kapatiran and bayanihan, each town gathered its citizens and prepared unique dance presentations in the hopes of winning the coveted prize, which would directly benefit their specific causes.

Helping them achieve their goals were dance consultants Douglas Nierras of Powerdance, Joy Cancio of Sex Bomb, Lema Diaz of Philippine All Stars and Egay Bautista of Speed who gave tips and advice that further improved their overall performance.

The task of gathering as many as 300 participants for this one-of-a-kind competition seemed like an impossible feat, but these townspeople endured countless hours rehearsing to make sure each move was perfect—taking them a step closer to helping their respective communities.

And in a competition where each dancing team was performing for a given cause, including a library, a health center, a theater and cemented roads, among others, the dancers of Laua-an who were asking for food particularly touched the heart of Arnell Ignacio who exclaimed, “Hindi naman dapat hinihingi ‘yun eh.”

“Naiyak ako kc ang mga hinihingi nila e KARAPATAN lang nila na magkaroon na dapat sagutin ng congressman nila from pork barrel,” the outspoken comedian later tweeted.

Ignacio also donated two sets of encyclopedia and one desktop computer to the dancers of Jose Panganiban who wishes to have a library in their small town. Gemora also offered a theater scholarships for the group from South Cotabato, going as far as expressing his willingness to come there to help.

But as Direk Joey Reyes pointed out, the Laua-an troupe did not get high scores from the judges because of their cause, their performance was simply flat out “epic” to him.

As announced by host Ryan Agoncillo, all participating dance groups were given P50,000 each that should at least help fund their own respective projects. The respective contact information of the people in charge of there causes were also repeatedly mentioned by Agoncillo as well as flashed on the screen for those who wish to help.

“Dancing Nation: A Talentadong Pinoy Special Edition” is a joint endeavor between TV5’s “Talentadong Pinoy” and “Dancing Nation”, the world’s biggest reality dancing competition.

(Click "here'  to watch Vids.)

Click HERE

  Click HERE

 Source: http://www.interaksyon.com

Tourist Spot & Places of Interest

Laua-an is endowed with rich and aesthetic environment ideal for tourism development. Existing tourist attractions include land-based, coastal-based, man-made, cultural-historical and socio-economic and deatinations.



Source: Discover Antique, Philippines







•  Mt. Igmatongtong(Video)
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            Guinbanga-an Bandi makers

Source: Lakad Pilipinas

• Aring Beach Resort

  

  Source: Batang Cdjug

• Cadajug Weavers

Mt. Dumara (where the gold is)




Municipal Nursery and Forestry




• Mauno Waterfalls

• Bagatraga Curve in Barangay Banban




Estaka Hill in Barangay Poblacion

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A message from:
      HON. MAYOR ASER S. BALADJAY

Our Municipality don't have much offer like high class municipalities but well cover it up with our warm acceptance and sweetness which we Lauan-on are famous for like our muscovado product.
Come and visit our place and feel at home!!!

Muscovado Sweet Treats at Laua-an

Like kids, we were stuffing our mouths full of with bars of bandi, Antique’s own version of panutsa. Locals stir pots filled with melted muscovado sugar; unbelievably, they’re still preparing more sweets for our consumption. It was the last activity for the second day of Katahum Tours’ Manggad Kang Antique Heritage Tour and we simply can’t say no to ending the day with nothing but sweets.

An hour or so before, we visited a sugar mill in the town of Laua-an. This is actually where all those local sweets we’ve been devouring came from. The place was hot and stuffy as we watched how sugarcane juice is processed into muscovado sugar.

Muscovado is a type of unrefined brown sugar. It isn’t as sweet as your normal white or brown sugar (well, at least by my taste), and is usually preferred by southern people for their coffee. I’ve tried it once at Madge Café in Iloilo and believe me, coffee definitely tastes better with muscovado.

Although mass production of muscovado is still limited in Antique, it’s still the number one producer of this type of sugar in the country. Surprisingly, it surpasses even the sugar capital of the Philippines, Bacolod City.
The sugar mill we visited was a testament to the fact. Even though it is probably one of the largest in the province of Antique, it is still a relatively small operation.

Making muscovado from sugar cane is no easy feat. We witnessed how everything was done manually. From the bamboo-fed furnace below the mill, to the stirring of the cane juice, up to its pouring and drying stage. No wonder it commands a higher price compared to the commercial sugar we’re all used to.

Besides pairing muscovado with coffee, it’s also an excellent ingredient for making local sweets.
At a gym somewhere in Laoa-an, we were treated to such delicacies. Everything was cooked and prepared right in front of us. And yes, they even let us participate in making it.

Like kids, we were treated to variations of bandi and butong butong.
Bandi is very similar to panutsa and Baguio’s peanut brittle. While I really don’t like the latter two, Antique’s bandi charmed me into eating almost a full bar. The difference, it wasn’t as sweet as the ones we have in Luzon, most probably since it was made from muscovado sugar.

Butong butong on the other hand is Antique’s version of tira-tira. Although this one’s too sweet for my tooth, it was quite fun making it though. Butong means to pull in the local dialect. And indeed, to make this candy treat, one has to bend and pull on a slightly melted muscovado goo until it becomes whitish in color. Twist to perfection and it’s done.
Too hyperactive from all that sugar, we gave the rest of the treats to the kids around the gym. Sugar overdose!

Source:http://www.lakadpilipinas.com