Bacolor town all set for ‘Makatapak’ Festival

BACOLOR -- This town is set to celebrate this year’s Makatapak Festival (Barefoot Festival) on Nov. 17, highlighting resiliency and religious fervor of its people in a myriad of street dancing and events.

Mayor Jose Maria Hizon told Sun.Star Pampanga that the event is in cooperation with the San Guillermo Parish, Centro Catolico de Bacolor, and the Municipal Government of Bacolor.

The event is part of the whole celebration of the 225th La Naval Fiesta Celebration. The event also includes the Mutya ning Baculud beauty contest that aims to select the most worthy representative for the town in province-wide beauty contest.

Hizon said this year’s celebration highlights the resiliency of Bacolor folk against adversities and on the rich cultural and religious heritage of the town that had withstood the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo and the subsequent lahar flows that buried most of the villages of the town.

San Guillermo parish priest Jess Manabat said this year’s celebration aims also to commemorate how the people of the town, both rich and poor, became one in dealing with the tragedy that once beset their town.

“That calamity was dealt with the people with outmost faith in the lord and strength of spirit. People then walked barefoot through mud and lahar, which shows that tragedy spares no one, not the poor or rich are spared,” Manabat said.

The Makatapak Festival aims to celebrate the strength of the Bacolor folk spirit and to attract attention to the town which has been steadily recovering from the 1991 eruption.

The event will include the crossing of the Gugu River, ritual dancing and bathing in lahar. These activities will center on the lahar experience of the people of Bacolor and how such have strengthened as a people and brought them closer to God, according to Manabat.

He said the event is also a testament to the ongoing efforts for the rehabilitation of Bacolor and to entice the original population to return to the town.