Today is our village fiesta, in honor of The Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady Of The Pillar. This special day is always celebrated on the second Sunday of October. It is also the 34th anniversary of my younger daughter's baptism.
We usually baptize our babies within two months of birth, but then, the contractors whom my husband was talking to for a long time suddenly became free to start our home renovation. They showed up without warning one Monday morning, so we took advantage of the opportunity. We badly needed the house extension as we already had three children and our original house had only two bedrooms.
To make a long story short, the renovation took longer as is usually the case in most constructions. When we pushed back the baptism of our daughter to October, after the cleaning and polishing inside and outside our home; we were oblivious that it would coincide with the fiesta. By tradition some Filipinos would schedule such occasions to coincide with the fiesta or even Christmas since they would be giving a party anyway, "para minsanan" (one time preparation), they would say; but that is not us; we want such special occasion to be a separate and distinct affair.
Back to the village fiesta.
In the late 70's, when we bought our house in this village, most residents were basically our contemporaries; everyone then were eager to connect with neighbors as we were all strangers in this place. I recall street meetings in our home as my husband had been a long time Chairman. Our Christmas parties were celebrated by the entire street.
A week before the occasion, a carnival opens in the plaza, the villagers would go there to join in the fun; they would ride the ferries wheel while children enjoy the mini rides. The fiesta used to be a two-day celebration; on the first night, there was amateur singing contest and residents participated.
The second day was focused on church activities since it is the feast day of our Lady of the Pillar; mass baptisms and mass confirmations were administered by the visiting bishop.
Parade bands would go around the village, people would linger in the streets; residents usually invite friends and relatives to their homes and the celebration would last the whole day until late at night when they watch a variety show. The residents pulled strings to invite as many show biz personalities and celebrities to sing or just for personal appearance.
Nowadays however, this is no longer true. I guess, we are not so excited anymore, for one thing most of our children are adults who now have their own lives somewhere in the city or even abroad.
This morning, as my husband and I attended the 10:30 mass as we do every Sunday, we were surprised that the church, including the wings were over-flowing. We were a little late but the usherettes know us so they sat us on the 4th row together with the church committee and members of church organizations.
It was a concelebrated high mass, with two bishops and at least 10 priests in attendance. The main celebrant who is a visiting bishop gave the homily; he said that the blessed Virgin Mary made this apparition in Zaragoza, Spain, while still on earth, she was then living in Jerusalem. To know more about this celebration/ apparition, click this link:
Today, I am happy that our village fiesta is confined in church activities, nothing pompous or commercial about it as most celebrations are nowadays.
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