May and memories

The Filipinos in Joso, Ibaraki, Japan will be celebrating the 4th Sunday of May with a Santacruzan Festival. This festival has become so common among Filipinos, whether they are in or out of the Philippines. We wonder how many know the origin of the festival. For sure, there are those who may not know about the religious, sacred meaning related to the Holy Cross (the Santa Cruz) which is often not told or discussed. Why the festival is also done in May is also not explained clearly to young and old alike.

One version of the origin of the Santacruzan Festival narrates the search for the real Holy Cross of the crucified Christ by St. Helena (the Reina Elena of the present Santacruzan), the mother of Emperor Constantine the Great of Rome who converted into Christianity. It is said that the mother and son went to various places and then finally found the real cross on the 3rd of May.

The secular interpretation of the Santacruzan has overtaken the religious meaning of the procession.  The Santacruzan has continued to be one big celebration throughout the Philippines and it has become an occasion to display fashionable clothes, beautiful couples, attractive decors, and so on.

Aside from Santacruzan, May brings back memories of Flores de Mayo for many. As May is within the long summer vacation months in the Philippines, visits and reunions with family, relatives, and friends are done during this month.

In Loay, Bohol, we spent afternoons with friends looking for beautiful flowers to offer to Mama Mary. And there were so many all over. Young as we were then, we did not get to know all the names of the colorful, fragrant flowers that we gathered but there were certainly so much of the lovely flowers then.

The sun was almost always out during our vacation days and so much time was spent playing outdoors or swimming at the Hinawanan Beach.

Evenings saw us gathered in Loay's boulevard near the “parola” ( lighthouse) where we would spend time just relaxing, talking, joking, singing, and looking up to the skies to watch out for occasional falling stars. Then, there would be picnic days again or trips to other towns. And so much biking together, especially at night, when the air was cooler and then, less vehicles on the road.

Then, there were the fiestas! In Bohol, every day of May is fiesta day! So much food, so much entertainment and fun!

Relatives from all over, within and outside the country, came for fiestas! They still do. The famous and sumptuous recipes of noted cooks graced the tables- who can ever forget the torta, humba, dinuguan, binangkal, among others.

Ah, to be able to go back to fiestas again and again, not so much just for the food but for the fun and joy of being with family, relatives, friends in one's hometown every May.

Being a province marked by heavy out-migration, Boholanos are often kidded for their “fiesta syndrome.” There is the common perception that wherever they are, Boholanos will do what they can to be back home for fiestas. Why? There are various reasons ranging from religious to personal.

Like the devotees of the Sto. Niño of Cebu, many go back to their hometowns to honor, to thank, or to ask favors anew from the patron saint of their place. Fiestas are also occasions to have the members of the extended households back to renew ties and to share blessings and pains together.

We wonder what memories about May our younger generation now have? Do the memories include beautiful natural places, happy days with family and friends, participation in religious activities and fiestas? Or are the memories now restricted to malls, sleepless nights playing computer games - more virtual than real time experiences and memories?

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