Lost amidst the noise, Middle East conflict, hustle and bustle of the political noise in the senate , rising prices of many customers’ items and many disturbances. Pause muna tayo. Let’s make a searching look backward.
When I was in my teen years I eagerly waited the month of May because there were so many towns and barrios celebrated fiestas. Us teenagers then were more excited on the traditional santacruzan. Aside from the free merienda prepared by households, we get to be introduced to the beautiful sagalas and the Santa Helenas.
It’s been a longtime since I heard the song, Diyos te salve Maria...beautiful ladies, beauty queens and barrio lass of substance parading on town streets. Let us look back and appreciate how important Filipino traditions are.
Many writers always describe the fifth month in the calendar as the merry month of May. Festivities in many towns throughout the country are being held in this month. It was so in my youth. It is so described because people then look forward on town fiestas. A time to visit friends and relatives. The enthusiasm among many people waned compared to yesteryears’s celebrations.I remember I used to accompany my mother when she visited her cumadres in Sta. Rita town which celebrates its fiesta on the 22nd and in the City of San Fernando on the 30th. After hearing mass on the town church, we spent almost the whole day visiting her friends and relatives and us bringing some gifts to the house owners.
Fiestas are still being held today in many cities, towns and barangays all over the country but they somehow lost the appeal due to the realities of today where people prefer to go to malls, where they can have those affordable buffet, 'eat all you can', unli samgyupsal instead of looking for kins and friends' houses in celebration.Fiestas today are no longer grand but because of tradition it refuses to die.The yesteryears’ fiestas featured coronations of beauty queens, the serenatas of competing bands, the musical jamborees on makeshift stages, the amateur contests,and of course the colorful procession.
The colorful festivity in this month is the Santacruzan. It is also called 'Flores de Mayo', meaning flowers in May. It is some kind of a religious and historical pageant featuring the Reyna Helena and his escort Constantino, and some sagalas in tow. The Reyna Helena is a personification of Helena of Constantinople who brought with her a crucifix and in search of the Holy Grail. The Reyna Helena almost always the most beautful pick among the local lasses. Or sometimes hermano mayoras and mayores import a movie starlet or a beauty queen to be the Helena.
Normally the parade was backed by brass band playing, and a choir singing 'dios te salve Maria’, the Spanish version of Hail Mary. It will be culminated by a ' pabitin' where a bamboo pole smeared with grease and with prize money waiting at the top for whoever can pick it.
In this month of May, and some cities, towns and barangays are mulling plans to hold their respective santacruzans. I googled on the internet who should be participating in the Flores De Mayo for reference and authenticity, and here is the list I was able to researched.
Matusalem, bearded with age. Reyna Banderada, queen with a banner. Three aetas, dark skinned indigenous people. Reyna Mora, represents Muslim Filipinos. Reyna ng Saba( Sheba), represents unnamed queen who visited King Solomon. Ruth and Noemi, ancestresses of King David. Reyna Judith, the biblical widow. Reyna Esther, the Jewish queen of Persia. Cleopatra, the famous last pharaoh of Egypt.
Samaritana , the woman at the well who conversed with Christ. Sta Veronica, the woman who wiped the face of Christ. Tres Marias, three Marys associated with the entombment of Christ. Reyna Fe, Esperanza and Caridad, representing faith, hope and charity. Reyna Sentenciada,her hands bound with rope stands for the early Christians. Reyna de las Flores, she carries a bouquet of flower. Reyna Helena, the last member in the procession,
For further authenticity, get a Goido, the moorish highwayman who with his troops trying to halt the procession. I always love looking back. I romanticize a lot. I am writing about it for the millennials.
