FIESTANG BALEN: Biography of a Town Fiesta Concepcion, Tarlac,
Philippines in the 1920s by Lino L. Dizon For anyone who is
neither taga-Concepcion nor a native of this town in southern
Tarlac, Central Luzon, Philippines, there is always the query
about its observance of two fiestas: Fiestang Patrun and
Fiestang Balen. A taga-Concepcion or a native would readily
elucidate the matter with a mélange of piety: it would be
sacrilegious to integrate the Fiestang Patrun, the feast day of
their patron or pintacasi, Apung Imaculada Concepcion, with the
mundane revelries of the Fiestang Balen. In the mid-1800s,
pioneering families of what was to become the town of Concepcion
became cut off from their kindred in the matriz of Magalang
after several natural disasters. Before this time, both pueblos
still belonged to Pampanga. When they were cut off, the pioneers
left their patron saint of 300 years, San Bartolome, and adopted
Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception as their own, believing
that Our Lady protected them from