LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- Kabayan town is up for a celebration.
The 8th Eco Tourism and Bindiyan festival, which is themed, "Kabayan ja Bonatan angken toy nak dedaban on oli ak son si kam", is set to close over the weekend with rituals and blessings.
The festival, which opened in simple rites, April 1, is a month-long event which feature a cultural parade, agro-trade fair, indigenous games, dances, a fun run as well as agro industrial trade fairs. It stretches out until Saturday, May 2.
The festival is celebrated as part of a sacred ritual made during abundant harvest and a thanksgiving to the gods.
Kabayan town, where Mt. Pulag, the second highest mountain in the country is located, continues to keep its cultural practices.
Zeniada QuiƱahan, guest speaker from the Business Research and Development Division Business Development-Department of Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority, is set to join festivities of the highland town Saturday.
Indigenous games and a cultural presentation from various barangays in the town are also set for the weekend festivities.
A forum on good agricultural practices is also slated during the festival to keep the agricultural town economically competitive in the market.
In Kabayan town, burial caves house the departed and make for a thriving tourism come on.
The town is known for mummification practices, which started to become a ritual over century ago ending in the 1500s, when Spain colonized the Philippines and introduced Christianity.
The mummification process here is different as internal organs of Benguet mummies are not removed keeping everything intact, a belief the dead has to go to the afterlife with body parts complete to ensure safe journey.