Seasons of devotion and a harvest of plenty

MANILA, Philippines - After the scorching heat and the dolorous air of the Semana Santa, the whole archipelago is ready for the lusty month of May. Marian devotion reaches its peak at this time. Lavish fiestas are held in the name of the patron saint of every barrio and in thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest. The most popular of these feasts honor San Isidro Labrador, the patron saint of farmers.

In May, flowers are in full bloom and after the harvest is brought in, everyone looks forward to a whole season of feasting and merrymaking.

School is over and the exodus for home begins for those studying or working in the city, and students play host to friends. Weddings are also timed for the endless family reunions at fiesta time.

Of all the Maytime festivities, the most popular are the Flores de Mayo and Santacruzan.

First introduced by the Spanish friars in 1854, the Flores de Mayo gained popularity in Bulacan, Laguna, Batangas and Pampanga and has since ushered in the Marian celebrations in every parish across the islands where devotion to the Virgin Mary is so fervent that she is addressed as Mama Mary. In the rural areas it is held daily for the entire month. Early in the morning, young girls in virginal white offer the most precious blooms picked from their home gardens. In suburbia, the Flores de Mayo is scheduled on the mornings of Saturday, Our Lady’s day.

 At sundown, every weekend, the Santacruzan takes place in every province, city, town or barangay with the biggest and longest procession reserved for the last day of May. Today, the most spectacular and star-studded in Manila features reigning beauty queens and international title holders. The lutrina, presided over by the Hermana Mayor,  commemorates the discovery of Christ’s cross by Queen Helena and her son Constantine. The sagalas or participants who represent Biblical characters as well as the best known attributes of the Virgin Mary,  go on a procession along major thoroughfares that end in the home of the Hermana Mayor. Through the years, this has become the social event in many places and sometimes lost in all the glitter and pomp is the simple message of the finding of the cross and the Virgin Mary’s place in our lives. At the end, however, the song “Dios Te Salve Maria” reminds all that it is Our Lady who is the star of this May time pageant.

Since the Philippines is primarily an agricultural country, San Isidro, whose feast day falls on May 15, is much-loved by farmers and is the star of the harvest festivals. He was born to very poor but devout parents in Madrid and spent his life in the service of a wealthy Madrileño landowner. He married a devout woman who later on was also canonized a saint. They had one son and one of the earliest miracles attributed to him is the rise of the waters of the deep well where his son fell, thus saving the boy from drowning. Legend also had it that the land he tilled yielded such a rich harvest because an angel plowed the field for him while he spent the time at mass.

On another instance, his master saw an angel tilling the soil on either side of him so that his work was equal to three men.

Among the many festivals in his honor, the most popular is the Pahiyas in Lucban, Quezon. Pahiyas refers to the groaning display on the façade of houses along the procession route showcasing the best of the town’s produce consisting of  vegetables, fruits, the famous longganisang Lucban, handicrafts like baskets and buntal hats.

But the cynosure of all attention year after year is the kiping or paper-thin wafers made from rice flour paste molded in the leaf of the kabal tree and dyed in the brightest of colors. These are strung like chandeliers and hung on the windows alongside all the crops.

A procession of the life-size image of San Isidro winds its way down a chosen route and once it is over, all the kiping is taken down and fried into crispy chips that everyone partakes of. The famous pancit habhab, meanwhile, is available in stalls lining the streets.

The festivity is a thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest and a supplication for rain when a drought is feared. San Isidro is venerated in other towns in Quezon province such as Tayabas, Sariaya, Gumaca and Agdanan as well as in other places in the islands like Napindan, Taguig in Metro Manila, San Isidro and Talavera in Nueva Ecija, in the Kangga festival in Mogpog, Marinduque, in Ilocos Norte, in the Nabas Bariw in Nabas in Aklan, in Medina, Misamis Oriental, in Barangay Teguis in Poro, Cebu and in Digos, Davao. 

The festivals in the Quezon towns all make a grand display of harvest with the added feature of a tagayan, the lambanog-drinking ceremony in the Mayohan sa Tayabas. In the Bagakay or Agawan sa Sariaya, the display includes confections unique to the town such as the pinagong bread and mazapan sweets arranged like chandeliers or wallpaper. In Gumaca, the produce is strung in 20 huge, gaily decorated arches or baluarte festooned with a heaving arañas or chandelier of produce.  

Three national folk dances that originated in this town – La Jota Gumaqueña, Jotabal and Del Pilar – are performed. In the Sabugan in Agdanan, horses in various costumes are paraded around town.

The carabaos that plow the fields with the farmer get special treatment on San Isidro’s feast day. In Pulilan, Bulacan on the eve of the fiesta, they are taken out of the rice paddies, shorn of their yoke, bathed and shaved, their bodies waxed to a satin sheen and their horns decked with garlands of flowers. Then they are paraded around town to the beat of lively marches alongside colorful carts laden with the earth’s bounty. A week before the festivities, the carabaos are patiently rehearsed daily, after all the farm chores are done, to kneel or genuflect once they arrive in front of the church on the day of the parade.

There are other celebrations honoring the beast of burden, among them the one in Pavia, Iloilo that features the carabao-carroza race that is done on a 110-meter racetrack.

As nature in all its splendor bursts forth in May and everyone celebrates the bounty of the land, thousands of pilgrims head to Bulacan for the Obando Fertility Fiesta or Kasilonawan sa Obando that is held from May 17-19.  On these days, they dance the fandango to a dirge – “Santa Clarang pinong-pino” – in a ritual that originated in the pagan rites performed by womenfolk before the coming of the Spaniards and Christianization.

During those times, there was a high value attached to fertility and barren women gathered in droves to perform the ritual to be fertile and gain acceptance in society.

The Franciscan missionaries later incorporated into the ritual veneration of San Pascual Baylon on the first day, Sta. Clara on the second day and the Nuestra Señora de Salambao on the third day.  

Pilgrims gather from the first of May to the end of the month to make the long trek to the shrine of one of the most adored of all Marian  images, Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, more popularly known as the Virgin of Antipolo.

They come to touch the veil of the dark image brought to the country on the galleons from Mexico, to ask for favors or thank her for granting their supplications.