Thursday, October 05, 2006 Arinday: Oktoberfest and MassKara By G.H. Arinday Jr. Sunfare
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PLEASURES, multitudes in disguised shining ecstasy, the hidden anguish in multi-colored crafted attires with dance rhythm simulating triumph over life's disquietude and misfortunes coinciding the Oktoberfest whence homebrewed lager in faraway Bavaria observing the pre-autumn homage to Bacchus.
The smiling masks complemented by varied ornamentals from indigenous materials which Nature has gifted the colored forbears to pay homage to various deities are now done in an unorthodox celebration of the things of past remembrances.
Hala-bira! Hala-bira! It's the dominant theme of courage to confront life's vicissitudes in merry drunken orgy, a rare realization of being part of humanity's quest for pleasure amidst life's reality. The drizzle jealous of sun's pleasure speaks of unwritten stream of life that there is always a time for happiness no matter how brief.
Yes, in this small patch of the Earth, where the sweetness of its soil, the ever-smiling faces of its people, the burden of existence notwithstanding, there is a quaint little city of Bacolod in the Midwest Central Philippines, where sugary tastes of its prime products match the incandescence of its people to welcome anybody to partake even in the pedestrian's participation in a happiness, vaster and sweeter like sugar the condiment of God's food in a feast of like nature.
MassKara the faces of the people! Let's borrow the lines from Charles Baudelaire in his prose poem The Soul of Wine:
"Listen to my music after hours./the hope that quickens in my throbbing heart/lean on the table with your leaves rolled up/and honor me:/you will know happiness."
Happiness comes like a perfumed breeze kissing every leaf and blade of grass in joyous moment to make you aware that Life is just a dream, passing through the channels of your endeavors. Let the anguish of curiosity and your solitude flow to the rhythmic street dance and you shall discover your true being as one capable of sharing your heart and angelic smile.
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Somewhere in the lofty heights of Bavaria, Germany, a unique celebration is done the whole month of October, where liters of beer of all types are homebrewed in a sort of competition, which excites the angels to take a sip.
While Bacchanalian mood is often associated with the month-long festivities, the Bavarians are engaged in badinage to give real homage to their culture.
The Bavarian villages and rolling hills resound the classic German classics while in towns and cities the celebrations take into heights of poetic and human folk-spirit of their ancestors in feverish happiness.
Beer guzzlers would find delight in savoring the personally-brewed beverage in every home, its unusual distinction may even have higher quality than those coming off the brewery mills.
What magical contents a bottle of beer makes a person uninhibited? The aura of personality is manifested as more bottles are emptied, and in some cases would result into unpleasantness? This occurrence is more manifest in our place but not in Bavaria as my friend who stayed in the upper region of Germany told me where he lived for more than a decade as a physician in one of the US Army hospitals until the Fall of Berlin Wall.
Dances are held in the streets while the beer flowed like the clear waters of the Rhine River. But seldom one can hear nor witness a drunken Bavarian playing a fool of himself and disturb the merrymaking.
As Rudyard Kipling said, "never shall the twain shall meet", but Oktoberfest and MassKara can have one thing in common when beverage shall flow after the dance streets shall have been over.
And above all other manifestations are done to celebrate the feast, the joyous moments must be free from harm's way and unpleasantness ill-conceived by felonious minds.
Let the spirit of Bavaria's Oktoberfest and MassKara be joined in genuine celebration with the proper rites of unity and dream of good life ahead and make the faces of the people be always merry.
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