One of the highlights of Holy Week in Cebu is the traditional food, like the popular Benignit of Cebu, which is uniquely enjoyed during this time. Benignit of Cebu Holy Week traditional food is cherished by many.
During Holy Week in Cebu, a traditional coconut-based dessert known as binignit continues to be a culinary and cultural staple, with one ingredient setting the local version apart: landang.
Across the Visayas and Mindanao, families prepare binignit, a sweet stew made of glutinous rice, root crops, bananas and jackfruit simmered in coconut milk. But in Cebu, the use of landang — a starch derived from the buli palm — distinguishes the dish from its regional counterparts. This makes it truly a Benignit of Cebu Holy Week traditional food.
Landang is manually crafted, shaped by hand and dried slowly. When cooked, it softens into irregular clusters that add a chewy texture to the stew. Unlike commercial sago, which forms neat spheres, landang provides an earthy, rustic quality that many Cebuanos associate with their childhoods and family traditions. This experience is part of the traditional food culture during Holy Week in Cebu.
In towns like Aloguinsan, the tradition of producing landang by hand has been preserved across generations. Although not exclusive to Cebu, the practice has endured in parts of the province where community-based food production remains active. This is evident in the Benignit of Cebu Holy Week traditional food scene.
Workers process landang from buli trunks in Tayud, Liloan, Cebu. (PHOTO BY JUAN CARLO DE VELA/SUNSTAR CEBU)
The days leading up to Good Friday often see public markets in cities like Talisay and Tabunok filled with shoppers buying ingredients for binignit and other native delicacies such as kakanin. Temporary stalls are stocked with kamote(sweet potato), gabi (taro), saba bananas, strips of langka (jackfruit), and freshly grated coconut, all essential elements of the Holy Week tradition of Cebu’s benignit.
Traditionally, families begin preparing the dish early in the morning. The root crops are peeled, bananas sliced and landang soaked in water. Coconut milk is extracted manually from grated coconut using a cloth strainer and bowl, a process still practiced in many rural households. It is a key part of Benignit of Cebu Holy Week traditional food preparation.
Cooking typically begins after the airing of the Seven Last Words on the radio — a broadcast of biblical reflections common during Good Friday in the predominantly Catholic Philippines. In many homes, especially during the 1980s and ’90s, the broadcast served as a spiritual and temporal marker for the day’s events, blending with the Benignit of Cebu Holy Week traditional food rituals.
The dish is often cooked in large quantities in an outdoor or “dirty” kitchen over firewood. The resulting aroma — a mix of coconut milk, jackfruit and landang — is commonly shared across neighborhoods, with households exchanging portions or comparing versions of the same dish.
While some children may avoid certain ingredients, most favor the creamy coconut broth, especially the portion thickened with landang. The dish is typically consumed as a midafternoon snack and is reheated over the next several days or eaten cold from the refrigerator, continuing the tradition of Cebu’s Holy Week food.
In contemporary times, despite the availability of instant ingredients and commercialized versions of the dish, many Cebuanos continue to make binignit using traditional methods. For them, Benignit of Cebu Holy Week traditional food remains not just a culinary practice but a ritual deeply tied to memory, faith and cultural identity.
