At least five dancing contingents and 50 calesa or tartanilla drivers joined the festive activities during the second day of the First Buwad Festival at the San Nicolas Parish yesterday.
The celebration started with a fluvial parade of the image of the Sto. Niño along the Pasil fish port. This was followed by a re-enactment of the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan and the discovery of the image by Legazpi’s soldiers at the height of a fire that engulfed the entire community.
In the afternoon, the crowd were treated to the calesa parade and street dancing of contingents, including the San Diego Dance Group and the Lumad Basakanon, the Sinulog champion.
The 3-day Buwad Festival actually started Friday when the image of the Sto. Niño arrived at the parish. It will be returned to the Basilica today, the culmination of the festival.
“This festival is a thanksgiving primarily for the discovery of the holy image and at the same time for the blessings we now enjoy, most especially the buwad,” said Father Trinidad Silva, parish priest of San Nicolas.
Throughout the festival duration, vendors at the Tabo-an Market are selling their buwad (or dried fish products) at 20 percent discount while offering locals and tourists a free taste of all kinds of buwad.
Nang Aying, a buwad vendor for 10 years, said the festival would help bring in more buyers of buwad at Tabo-an.
Silva also clarified some questions over the celebration of “Kaplag”, involving the insistence that the exact site of the discovery of the Sto. Niño image was the Basilica Minore de Sto. Nino.
“The San Nicolas Parish historically extends from the Basilica to the City of Carcar, so we have the reason to hold the celebration,” he said. — Trex Eden Ignacio and Anthony Teo, UP-MassComm intern/RAE