Casino Español marks Santiago Apostol Day

Last Saturday, we joined the Casino Español’s annual celebration of Saint James the Apostle Day. And we must commend Casino Español for preserving two past great celebrations that the present generation has totally forgotten. One is the Santiago Apostol Day that we mentioned; the other is the Feast of the Three Kings.

During the Spanish times, Christmas gifts were not exchanged during the Nativity. The main December 25th observance was the Misa de Gallo, or the Midnight Mass that ushered in Christmas Day. Gifts were exchanged on the 12th day of Christmas which was the Epiphany. The reason was obvious. It was then that the Holy Infant received his first gifts from the Wise Men from the East. Later, they were said to be kings and were said to be three in number, because there were three gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh. They were even provided with first names – Melchor, Gaspar, Baltazar. The Casino Español is the only old institution that still observed the Feast of the Three Kings by having three of its members dress like kings and mounted on horseback distribute gifts to indigent children.

Santiago Apostol, they commemorate with a stage celebration for its members and their guests. Most people today are no longer familiar with the pilgrimage to Compostela. In Nick Joaquin’s story, the Mass of St. Sylvestre, there is a character who was a magus in Old Manila known as Mateo el Maestro. He was feared as a sorcerer but respected as a musician, artist, doctor, philosopher, chemist and scholar. In the Joaquin story, Mateo el Maestro grafts the eyes of a dead person and his eyeballs in order to be able to witness the holy mysteries that can be seen only by the eyes of the deceased. We are not punished for our sins but by our sins and in the Joaquin story, Mateo el Maestro turns into stone.

Mateo el Maestro is actually a historical figure that Nick Joaquin lifted out of the great Cathedral in St. James’ Compostela. He was actually a Frenchman named Maitre Mathieu, who designed the Compostela Cathedral and its religious figures. In the Cathedral is a stone image of the Maestro himself. It is that image that Nick Joaquin transported in his New Year’s legend about our Cathedral.

We are losing so much of our great past. Again, we commend Casino Español for doing what it can to preserve our past heritage.