By Gladys Pino/PNA
AMADEO, Cavite — This ‘coffee capital’ town of Cavite, popular for its ‘Pahimis’ (coffee) Festival, will open its first-ever night market to coincide with its Christmas lighting activity at the town hall plaza on Saturday.
The event, done through the efforts of Mayor Conrado Viado, Vice Mayor Leo Angelo Bayot and Sangguniang Bayan members, is organized in time for the Christmas season’s ‘Simbang Gabi’, where townsfolk and guests may find gift suggestions to complete their Christmas gift list, said local tourism officer Jam Tibayan on Wednesday.
Organizers are targeting at least 20 exhibitors offering a wide array of food and non-food items, including of course the famous Amadeo coffee for the night market that would run from 1 p.m. until midnight, daily,, starting Dec. 2, adds Tibayan.
Dance and song numbers will set the ‘Christmas’ merry-making and cheers during the opening.
There are still open slots for exhibitors, and depending on its success, the exhibit may continue even after Christmas, said Tibayan.
“We might extend it until the annual celebration of ‘Pahimis’ Festival in February 2019.”
This fourth class town boasts of 4,508 hectares of coffee farm land, the largest land area devoted to coffee farming in the entire Cavite, thus considered the biggest coffee producer in the province.
To help promote this local produce, the town holds its ‘Pahimis’ (Amadeo’s word for “pasasalamat” or thanksgiving) Festival, which traces its origin from coffee farmers giving away their last can of harvest as a sign of thanksgiving offering, in the belief that this will bring good luck and abundance for the next harvest season.
The festival is held annually not only to revive farmers’ interest in coffee farming, enhance coffee yields and attain a competitive coffee price in the world market but also to promote the town’s agri-tourism offerings, with coffee as the main attraction.
