Lo-on Ha Lon-an
I can say that this topic may be one for the nostalgia - at least to those who've been living on planet earth for 3 decades now. Yet this can also be additional learning, to the young and modern, with no actual farm exposure other than reels, shorts or tiktok!
Umayos kayo, baka ang iba sa inyo eh, gawa sa lon-an!
Further to what I earlier told you, let's talk more about the LO-ON and LON-AN.
This arduous task is an important if not crucial part of the copra production process.
This pag-lo-lo-on activity is just a little past-halfway of many backbreaking activities, that farmers must endure, to complete their copra production cycle, to earn a living.
Many farmers are by-and-by getting disinterested, slowing down or outright turning to other sources of livelihood, due to the amount of physical work, compared to the meager incomes that they derive from copra production. Baka maglaho na ito soon!
Therefore, before this industry dissipates, let's document the tedious main process.
01. Panaka.
02. Panirok.
03. Pamunot.
04. Pamagtak.
05. Pag-loon.
06. Panlukad.
07. Pamulad.
08. Panako.
Each of those 8 'main' steps still have their own (usually tedious) "sub-processes". I may not even know all those manual details. But let's discuss them in another story.
On this 'encounter', all I 'witnessed' was just part of Step 5. Here's short clip:
Alright. You have seen that video. LOON (pronounced lo-on) is the whole process of smoking coconuts in order to make them copra. That's 2-in-1: drying and fumigating.
The Loonan (pronounced lo-on-nan or lon-an or lun-an) is the structure that looks like a 'makeshift stage' (usually made of bamboo), where dehusked and halved nuts are piled face-down, to be smoked via the fire pit built below the stage, fueled by husks.
I was/am grateful the two manongs gamely conversed with me. They answered all my questions, told me things I didn't know yet, as they worked on the fire. Amazing!
I learned many things about the "lo-on", "lon-an" and processes before or after that.
You want examples?
It takes days, even a week, to build a lon-an.
Once you start the fire, you attend to it 24/7.
Often, they smoke coconuts in batches.
Smoked batches must be in a dry open area.
During rainy days a lon-an must have a roof.
A lon-an can be used for winnowing palay!
Sometimes it can be used as a party venue!
During events, the lon-an serves as "stage"!
A lon-an can also be used "to make children"!
Natawa ako dyan sa last "function" of a lon-an. Since it has no walls, I asked how & why could it possibly be a venue for the production of children! Y'know what I mean!
They educated me that, a lon-an is usually away from most residential nipa houses, so that smoke won't disturb people. When a lon-an is not in use to lo-on, "alams na"!
Yun isang manong ang nagsabi "alams na!"
What a snippet into the realities of rural life! Not only about smoke-drying coconuts, but even as to why our little country, has so many people in it! Para-paraan 'ika nga!
And that's where the Waray-waray joke comes from: nga "gin-himo ka la ha lon-an" [ginawa ka sa lon-an; you were made in a lon-an]! Jokes after all, have hints of reality!
Who needs Anito, Victoria or Sogo? Me lon-an naman!
O, di ba?
O, lon-an!
Umayos kayo, baka ang iba sa inyo eh, gawa sa lon-an!
Further to what I earlier told you, let's talk more about the LO-ON and LON-AN.
This pag-lo-lo-on activity is just a little past-halfway of many backbreaking activities, that farmers must endure, to complete their copra production cycle, to earn a living.
Many farmers are by-and-by getting disinterested, slowing down or outright turning to other sources of livelihood, due to the amount of physical work, compared to the meager incomes that they derive from copra production. Baka maglaho na ito soon!
Therefore, before this industry dissipates, let's document the tedious main process.
01. Panaka.
02. Panirok.
03. Pamunot.
04. Pamagtak.
05. Pag-loon.
06. Panlukad.
07. Pamulad.
08. Panako.
Each of those 8 'main' steps still have their own (usually tedious) "sub-processes". I may not even know all those manual details. But let's discuss them in another story.
On this 'encounter', all I 'witnessed' was just part of Step 5. Here's short clip:
Alright. You have seen that video. LOON (pronounced lo-on) is the whole process of smoking coconuts in order to make them copra. That's 2-in-1: drying and fumigating.
The Loonan (pronounced lo-on-nan or lon-an or lun-an) is the structure that looks like a 'makeshift stage' (usually made of bamboo), where dehusked and halved nuts are piled face-down, to be smoked via the fire pit built below the stage, fueled by husks.
I was/am grateful the two manongs gamely conversed with me. They answered all my questions, told me things I didn't know yet, as they worked on the fire. Amazing!
I learned many things about the "lo-on", "lon-an" and processes before or after that.
You want examples?
It takes days, even a week, to build a lon-an.
Once you start the fire, you attend to it 24/7.
Often, they smoke coconuts in batches.
Smoked batches must be in a dry open area.
During rainy days a lon-an must have a roof.
A lon-an can be used for winnowing palay!
Sometimes it can be used as a party venue!
During events, the lon-an serves as "stage"!
A lon-an can also be used "to make children"!
Natawa ako dyan sa last "function" of a lon-an. Since it has no walls, I asked how & why could it possibly be a venue for the production of children! Y'know what I mean!
They educated me that, a lon-an is usually away from most residential nipa houses, so that smoke won't disturb people. When a lon-an is not in use to lo-on, "alams na"!
Yun isang manong ang nagsabi "alams na!"
What a snippet into the realities of rural life! Not only about smoke-drying coconuts, but even as to why our little country, has so many people in it! Para-paraan 'ika nga!
And that's where the Waray-waray joke comes from: nga "gin-himo ka la ha lon-an" [ginawa ka sa lon-an; you were made in a lon-an]! Jokes after all, have hints of reality!
Who needs Anito, Victoria or Sogo? Me lon-an naman!
O, di ba?
O, lon-an!
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