The Fiesta Spirit

The fiesta is one of the main cultural and religious events in the Philippines. The celebration of fiesta, which means feast, is one of the influences of Spain that has taken root in the Philippines. Each barangay has a fiesta, which probably holds true for most municipalities and cities. The festivities mostly coincide with the day of the Patron Saint of a particular place.

In Barangay Bacuyong, Pinan, Zamboanga del Norte, a feast in honor of the patron saint Cruz, was enjoyed by everyone regardless of faith. It is basically the time when the rich, the poor, the young, and the old prepare their kitchen’s best, serving food two or three or four times the amount of food served during the Christmas Season. It is the time of fun and chaos, get togethers, reunions, sports feast, and summer break even made more fun with a night of merrymaking. It is the time of the year when pretty much everyone is welcomed inside the house for a meal -- friends, friends of friends, relatives, relatives of relatives, an acquaintance’s friend, a long lost family, a stranger or passers-by. In other words, each household prepares food for guests and even uninvited visitors are welcome.

As part of the celebration, the group organized several games and activities for everyone like Palo sebo, lakad sa bao, tug of war, volleyball, amazing race, and skipping rope where everyone tried to outdo each other in friendly competition. The group tried to incorporate the topics of the different community health plans to remind them of the important health topics. It also created a true feeling of unity for the young and old alike as they gathered for a cultural festival filled with fun, food, hospitality, and learning. As incentives to their effort, prizes were also given to the winning team.

I must say that the fiesta celebration in the provinces or probinsya is more traditional, illustrating Filipino hospitality at its best. In this town, the fiesta is being celebrated on the month of May, and here’s the more interesting part — since the fiesta is usually a 2-day celebration (the fiesta proper and the viesperas, which is the day before the fiesta proper), it is also like feeding the whole town for 2 days straight and where the saying ‘the early bird catches the worm’ greatly applies.

In the next days the town will be very quiet again as everyone leaves town and return to their homes away from home but certainly time and again, we will be coming back.