SAN JUAN, Ilocos Sur – A four-kilometer sleeping mat made from a local palm called “buri” (silag to the Ilocanos) will be paraded on Dec. 27 during the celebration of the town’s “Buri Festival”.

Mayor Benjamin Sarmiento said in making the four-kilometer mat, the people would like the name of their town to be etched in the Guinness Book of World’s Record.

Sarmiento explained that the upcoming “Buri Festival” will be part of the town fiesta of San Juan slated from Dec. 27 to 30.

He said that his townmates had already started to weave the four-kilometer mat that will be laid along the streets here on the eve of the town fiesta on the 27th.

Each mat weaver is expected to make a five-meter long mat. Then, all the mats produced by local folks would be sewn together in order to complete the four-kilometer long mat.

The buri mat is what most Ilocanos of northern Philippines usually spread on their wooden or bamboo floor to sleep on at night. It is also sold by itinerant traders in and outside the province. “Our “Buri Festival” jibes with the celebration of out town’s fiesta, which we called San Juan Christmas Festival”, said Sarmiento.

He said the town fiesta this year will be different from the past because they now want to focus on putting their town in the global map as home of buri plants and the producer of the world’s longest sleeping mat.
“After the festival, we will submit it all the documentary requirements that could justify our claim of making and owning the longest mast in the world to the London-based Guinness Book of World Records,” the mayor said.