Fiesta Season

May is also known as the Fiesta month. Many towns and barangays throughout the province celebrate their feasts in honor of their patron saints.

It is interesting that although barangays are clustered in short distances, per each in a town holds a fiesta celebration with pomp and fun.

Nothing is wrong in celebrations made up of sports competition, stage presentations and the like. Remembering and contemplating the life of a patron saint by honoring him/her on his/her feast day should be given more weight. Fiestas are essentially religious and not secular events.

Upon reflecting their heroic lives full of faith and trust in God, we are challenged to emulate what they did to their neighbors.  They teach us to trust and love God in good times and bad.  Despite facing martyrdom they did not recant their faith or wavered to do good and holy.

For me, the latter is the essence in celebrating feasts; to appreciate and follow the footsteps of extraordinary men and women in history and eras --- and not by holding expensive parties or drinking sprees.

Anyway, we have been doing those since Spanish times. What else is new?