RESORTS, rivers and beaches are the favorite spots for Filipinos to go and celebrate San Juan Bautista’s Feast Day. Most of us flock to these places to bathe and eat or just to chat and drink. San Juan is celebrated as a holiday rather than a holy day. Work or not, Filipinos race to the beaches. In many places, regattas, beach volleyball, and other activities are held.
San Juan is sometimes called “biray” in our dialect, though it means to sail; how it got to mean the San Juan celebration may be worth a research. Wherever one goes, eating is take out, packed for picnics, drinks in the cooler, and rubber inner tubes protruding from the windows of jeepneys. In the beaches, our rescue teams are alert, police and other agencies related to public safety are on their toes waiting for any bad event to happen. Fun is the word to describe the San Juan feast today.
Lost in the celebrations is the real meaning of San Juan. Its true significance is forgotten and like other religious activities, only the revelry is important. San Juan Bautista is one of the most important in the rooster of saints. He was the preacher of the coming of the Savior. He preached and, most importantly, baptized the believers.
Baptism is one of the most important rituals of Christendom, as it admits the believer into Christianity, and purifies by way of water. While the old way of immersion is no longer practiced, baptism—by pouring water over the person’s head—is performed today.
Baptism is a sacrament. The first to administer to the people and to Jesus Christ himself was San Juan Bautista or Saint John the Baptist.
In Bago City where it is the patron saint of the parish, the feast day is celebrated both with religious fervor and Pinoy style revelry.
Though a religious endeavor, the feast day is celebrated by the local government, through the City Tourism Office. Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Iglesia Filipina Independiente join the city government to honor San Juan Bautista.
The day starts with a Diana, a traditional call very early in the morning for the public to a feast day. A Mass is said for the saint in both the Roman Catholic Church and the Iglesia Filipina Independiente. A procession follows the Mass and heads to Bantayan Park, along Bago River where a boat awaits the image of San Juan Bautista.
A fluvial procession (this year saw the biggest participants) follows around the Bago River after which the image of San Juan Bautista is displayed in the pavilion for the faithful.
Amid the revelry, and while we enjoy the feast of San Juan Bautista, let us not forget why we are celebrating it.