Town to mark 6th Duman festival (Sun.Star, Thursday, November 29, 2007)

Town to mark 6th Duman festival
By Ian Ocampo Flora

STA. RITA -- As the month of December ushers in the cold Yuletide breeze, a local cultural arts group here will once again celebrate a festival rooted on the Kapampangan’s own version of cereal.

The Duman Festival, organized by Arti Sta. Rita, will kick off on December 1.

The festival, started in 2002, originated from the tradition of pounding and winnowing unripe glutinous rice (lacatan) and turned into a light pale gold or green delicacy called “duman.”

The glutinous rice is harvested just before it gets ripe and continuously pounded amidst song and merriment.

During harvest, mature kernels fall off. The prized duman are the young greenish kernels that stay on the stalks.

The way to get the duman is to shake the stalks. The greenish grains are gathered, watered and toasted for two hours. The grain is pounded then winnowed to separate chaff from grain.

According to Andy Alviz, creative director of Arti Sta. Rita, the event will also be highlighted by authentic Kapampangan food fair and performances from Arti Sta.Rita.

The event will start at 5 p.m. at the Sta. Rita Church Patio. “The presentations on the performances will be a combination of the groups 1st, 2nd, and 3rd albums,” he added.

Because of economic and agricultural considerations plus the intensive labor of duman-making, one kilo costs more than a thousand pesos. Sellers in Pampanga focus on families they know who can afford to buy. This special yellow-green rice is usually consumed mixed with thick chocolate. Those with enough of the grains can make them into rice cakes.

Alviz is optimistic the festival will continue to attract food connoisseurs and become prominent as a tourism event for this town and the province. Arti Sta. Rita Foundation Inc., a national awardee of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), has started the festival during the month of December a few years back. The event is usually a presentation of Kapampangan food and a throng of cultural presentations.

The tradition of duman-making is still practiced in this town, particularly in Barangays Sta. Monica and San Agustin where the scent of the winnowing process still hovers along old houses and the pounding and scent of duman could still be heard during the November and December months.