Wednesday, June 13, 2012

What Is Walis Tingting?

So what is walis tingting?

A walis tingting is the Tagalog word for broomstick made from coconut midribs. The word "walis" meaning broom, and tingting which is the midribs of the coconut leaves used to create the broomstick.

The broomstick has been a part of Filipino life, walis tingting would be seen used into yard sweeping and I can't count how many times I had used this broom myself. And do you wanna know something fun? The broomstick making! Yes, one can create the broomstick instead of having a trip to the market and purchasing one. I had memories making one when I was a kid with my lola (grandma) and my mom, but most of the time it was my grandmother making the broomstick while she was living with us in the farm.

And to make the walis tingting, you would need three things:
* a knife
* coconut midribs
* tie

And of course you would also need to spend some time scraping off the midribs to gather enough of it for your broom.

                                                              (image credit: depositlyrics.com)
The steps are just simple. First, scrape off the midribs from the coconut leaves, set aside all the gathered midribs and when you have enough, tie it all together and you would have a homemade broomstick. And don't forget to cut about less than 1 ft. from the soft ends for your broom to work well, or else you would have some hard times sweeping the yard as the soft ends can hardly sweep leaves or any debris from your yard.

Here is some broomstick making photos worth looking at that I found online:

Broomstick Making Photos


And if you want to read about the legend of the coconut tree, you can visit and read the coconut legend I wrote from Hubpages :)
The Legend Of Coconut Tree