Every May, the streets of Lucban in the Philippines become colourful.
Houses are covered with rice, vegetables, fruits, flowers and brightly coloured decorations made from rice paste.
This is the Pahiyas Festival, one of the Philippines’ best known harvest celebrations. It takes place every 15 May in Lucban, Quezon, to honour San Isidro Labrador, the patron saint of farmers. The Philippine Department of Tourism describes it as a thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest.
Harvests on the Walls
Kiping is the most recognisable part of Pahiyas.
These are thin, leaf shaped wafers made from rice paste and dyed in bright colours, hung on house facades next to real fruit, vegetables and flowers.
In The Pahiyas in Lucban, Quezon: A Preliminary Study, published in the University of the Philippines, researcher Pearl Tan-Punongbayan described facade decoration as the festival's main feature, with kiping as its main motif. Her fieldwork was carried out in 1983.
In 2025, more than 500 houses took part in the decoration contest, according to Rappler. Displays used produce, flowers and kiping, and the winning structure received more than ₱200,000 or roughly US$3,200.
A Town Rooted in Farming
Agriculture remains central to Lucban's identity. According to a climate resilience project citing data from the Lucban Municipal Agriculturist, 6,963 hectares were devoted to crops including coconut, rice, vegetables, fruits and root crops.
The same source recorded around 1,300 hectares of irrigated and rain fed rice land, cultivated by about 1,400 rice farmers who produced roughly 5,200 metric tons of palay per cropping season.
The festival's origins are unclear. Tan-Punongbayan's study found no documentation of how or when Pahiyas began, even in church records, and treated popular explanations, from thanksgiving to San Isidro to a Christianised version of older indigenous rituals, as unverified.
Going back only as far as the evidence allows, she concluded that Pahiyas was a communal thanksgiving to San Isidro for a good harvest.
From Decoration to Food
An older Pahiyas tradition called pagkakalas allowed residents and visitors to take the produce displayed outside houses after the celebration.
According to Hermeneutic analysis of the San Isidro Pahiyas Festival as a development communication medium in Lucban, Quezon, Philippines, published in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, the tradition developed from an earlier practice in which farmers brought their harvest to the church to be blessed.
As the amount of produce grew, it was eventually displayed outside houses along the procession route instead.
Kiping is also edible, it is made from ground rice mixed with food colouring, moulded on leaves, then steamed and dried. Mainly a decoration during Pahiyas, it can later be grilled or fried.
Lucban Comes Alive in May
When the festival returned after a two year pandemic break In 2022, more than 600 houses took part and around 100,000 visitors came to Lucban, about half the 200,000 recorded in 2019, according to the Philippine News Agency.
The 2026 celebration was held on Friday, 15 May.
Thousands of tourists and devotees came to Lucban, and small businesses, eateries, souvenir shops and local farmers sold their goods during the festival, according to PIA Calabarzon.
DOT Calabarzon Regional Director Marites Castro told the Philippine Information Agency during the celebration that continuing such traditions remains important despite the oil crisis, which led several local governments in Quezon and elsewhere to shorten or scale down festivals.
Festivals need not be long, she said, and traditional activities can be shortened while still preserving them, because they stimulate the local economy through small vendors, transport groups and food businesses.
