Secret Gardens at the Manila Seedling Bank Compound

 

 

I haven’t been posting articles lately since we are focusing on some home improvement activities. One project we started working on is converting a part of our house into a Traveler on Foot-themed patio where we plan to display souvenirs and mementoes we have brought home from our travels.

 

 

 

We are so inspired with the landscape we saw during our Viaje del Sol that we wanted to recreate the experience at home. A major characteristic of the gardens featured in Viaje de Sol destinations are the blending of nature and art in a rustic environment. Since we are not landscape artists or interior designers, we are doing this project based on the little “creativeness” we have in our hearts.

 

 

Since we are working on a patio overlooking a small garden, first thing on our to-do list is to get some ornamental plants. So during one rainy weekday last week, we headed for the Manila Seedling Bank compound in Quezon City to get planting supplies.   

 

  

  

The Manila Seedling Bank Foundation in a non-government organization established in 1977 as a seedling producer aimed to contribute to the country’s efforts in greening the environment. Today, the sprawling lot has been rented out to plant dealers selling varieties of ornamental as well as edible and flowering plant life, landscaping materials and gardening tools.

 

 

What is remarkable about the Manila Seedling Bank compound aside from the affordable plants and gardening supplies are the garden themes. A walk around the garden stores is like entering secret gardens which showcase different landscaping styles.   

 

 

We wanted to get some water plants like the quiapo and allow it to float on the aquarium but I was told by the plant dealer that water plants require direct sunlight. Thus, the plan of having a Pandin or Sampaloc Lake aquarium was cancelled from our design plan. Instead we have chosen potted plants that will most likely to survive in partially shaded areas like the fortune plant, money tree, and different kinds of ferns and palms and cacti.

 

The Manila Seedling Bank is located just across Bantayog ng mga Bayani along Quezon Avenue corner EDSA. Vehicle entrance is along Agham Road.

 

Baclaran Day

 

 

The Redemptorist Church in Baclaran is one of the most popular religious shrines in the Philippines. Every Wednesday, a great number of devotees flock the National Shrine Our Mother of Perpetual Help to make a novena to the miraculous Byzantine icon whose replica is mounted on the high altar.

 

However, this phenomenon is not as old as the devotion to the Black Nazarene in Quiapo which dates back centuries ago. In fact, the popularity of the Our Mother of Perpetual Help as an object of devotion in the country only began some 60 years ago.

 

 

The Beginnings of the Baclaran Phenomenon

 

 

In 1906, the Redepmtorist fathers brought the replica of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in the Philippines. But its popularity did not launch the way the Perpetual Novena did when it was introduced in 1948.

 

Contrary to popular belief, the Perpetual Novena did not start in Baclaran but in Iloilo at the Redemptorist Church of San Clemente. After witnessing the devotion of the Ilonggos to the Perpetual Novena, Father Gerard O’Donnell introduced the Novena to Baclaran. It was Father Leo English who conducted the first Baclaran Novena on June 23, 1948 with only 70 participants.  

 

 

But it is not later that the small wooden Redemptorist church that dates back in 1932 had to be replaced (enlarged) to accommodate the growing number of devotees. The present church building of Modern Romanesque style is the third to be built on the same site. In December 1952, the National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help has been constructed. It has become one of the largest churches in the Philippines and the Our Mother of Perpetual Help to be among the most venerated Marian images in the country.   

 

 

To accommodate the growing number of devotees, the Wednesday Perpetual Help Novena has been observed in most Catholic churches all over the country. But for Our Mother of Perpetual Help devotee, nothing can be more sacred than a Wednesday pilgrimage to Baclaran.

 

 

Baclaran Day

 

Unlike with the Señor Nazareno which explains the main draw to Quiapo Church on a Friday (as in remembrance of the Lord’s sufferings on Good Friday), there is no historical definitive answer why Wednesday has been identified as Baclaran Day.  

 

 

During the pre-war years, the practice was to have a devotion to Saint Joseph on Wednesday. The same devotion was given to San Antonio de Padua on Tuesday, Our Lady of Lourdes on Saturdays and so on. Perhaps it is because June 23, 1948, the day when the first Baclaran Novena was conducted fell on a Wednesday and the tradition continues to this day. Nevertheless, the crowd drawer in Baclaran is the Our Lady of Perpetual Help who is believed to have granted the prayers of those who have been devoted to the Perpetual Novena. 

 

 

Father Luis Hechanova explains that a novena is a series of prayers said over nine days or nine weeks consecutively, usually in preparation for a major feast or to ask for a special favor. The ordinary novena stops after the nine occasions until it resumed the next time a around, often the following year when connected with feasts, or whenever a devotee decides to resume it privately.

 

A perpetual novena on the other hand, is a series of nine occasions of prayer but repeated continuously. When one series is finished, it begins again. In practice it becomes an unending series of weekly sessions, usually associated with a particular day of the week, not necessarily Wednesday.

 

 

The Minutiae of Sabong

  

  

Tension mounts as I entered the cockpit arena in San Mateo, Rizal. In the galleries, the crowd mostly composed of men, waited for the bets to be equalized. Using traditional hand-gestures and calibrated calls, the bet bakers or kristo –which is described as such because of the times when the position of his arms resembles a cross, calls out and equalizes bets in the arena. 

 

 

As the roosters were set face to face in the cockfighting pit, the crowd began to go wilder. In a matter of less than ten minutes, the fight is over and the victor is announced. At that point, the crowd’s decibels dips at bearable levels as post-mortem discussions continues. The same level of tension mounts again as another set of cocks was set against each other.  

 

 

  

Although, sabong has been frown upon because of notion of cruelty to animals, but sabongeros or gamecock aficionados who indulge in the game either as breeders, bettors or derby promoters, would attest to the fact that the roosters eat better than most people and receive more attention from them than family members.

 

 

Preparing the Cocks

 

 

In more than a thousand sabungan or cockfighting arenas in the country, the ritual of sabong begins in the matching pit, where the sabongers, match their roosters as they bluff, cajole and banter among each other.

 

The roosters are then fitted with a sharp blade or locally referred as tare on their heel by a professional mananare. The idea is to set and tie the blade at a height and angle wherein the rooster can inflict maximum mayhem with a minimum amount of movement. The height and angle of the blade must conform to the fighting style of the gamecock.  

 

 

The Sabong Betting System

 

Learning how the roosters are being prepared for a match is interesting enough. However, the exciting part of sabong is really on betting. It is not my first time to have entered a cockpit. I am not an aficionado but I am quite familiar with the general rules.  

 

 

First is to choose between two roosters. One is llamado, or the crowd favorite who is sought to most likely to win and the dejado or the underdog whose winning chance is deemed slimmer. In short, betting on the llamado means winning less and on dejado means getting more, depending on the odds.

 

Understanding the odds require a little math. The odds in betting begins at sampu siyam or ten percent, goes on to walo, dyes or twenty percent, then walo, anim or thirty percent and all the way to tres or fifty percent. In some cases, the odds could go as high as one hundred percent (doblado) in favor of the llamado.

 

 

All the bets are called through calibrated calls and hand signals. However, it takes experience to discern the difference between sampu siyam wagging of the palm to walo diyes wiggling of the thumb. Although these rules are not codified or written as laws, they are based on centuries of traditions. To some extent, certain provinces vary in signals and calls.

 

What it is easier to notice the amount of what is actually being called. Fingers denote figures with their denominations determined by the position. If fingers are held upwards, they are in the denominations of ten, when horizontally, they denote hundreds and when downward, they represent thousands.

 

 

Two kinds of bets could be placed during the match: one in the galleries and the other with the pit manager in the arena. In this case, a ten percent plasada or arena fee is deducted from the total bet. Tipping rate is ten percent of the total loot. However, no tip is expected if one loses a bet.

 

References:

Fiesta by Alejandro Roces

Fowl Play by Ike Arevalo

La Naval de Manila Procession

 

 

October in Old Manila is so famously nostalgic because this was the month of the city’s greatest and grandest procession proudly referred by the old Manileños as La Naval de Manila. Touted during the prewar years as the procesion de los procesiones, the event pays tribute to the Blessed Virgin as Nuestra Señora de Santissimo Rosario for Her miraculous intervention during a series of battles in 1646 that concluded in favor of the Spaniards over the Dutch pirates. 

 

 

The procession is no longer held in Intramuros since the old Dominican church where the image of the La Naval was originally enshrined was destroyed during World War II. Today, the procession is held at the Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City.

 

 

A Glimpse of Majesty and Taste of Heaven

 

According to our National Artist Nick Joaquin, the image of “La Naval was embellished with gold, silver and precious stones and those who gazed upon Her got a glimpse of majesty and taste of heaven.” 

 

 

The image of the La Naval was a legacy of Governor General Luis Perez Dasmariñas who wanted a statue to memorialized both his deceased father (murdered by Chinese) and the his own regime. The beautiful image was carved from ivory by a non-Catholic Chinese who was later converted. Governor Dasmariñas entrusted the image to the Dominicans and was enshrined at the Santo Domingo Church in Intramuros.

 

 

The image is garbed in yards of precious tisu de oro embroidered with silver gilt thread. The high-karat golden crowns of the Virgin and the Infant Jesus are studded with various precious jewels mostly gifts from generations of devotees who considered the Virgin as another heiress of the family jewels. Nick Joaquin himself, a devotee of the La Naval donated his gold plated bronze National Artist medallion which is now part of the many treasures of the La Naval.

 

 

During World War II, La Naval together with Her vestments, jewels and crowns miraculously survived the inferno that reduce the old Santo Domingo Church in Intramuros to rubble and ashes.

 

Today the La Naval remains one of the most venerated images in the Philippine and its October procession reigns as the procesion de los procesiones in its new shrine in Quezon City.

 

 

Processions of all Processions

 

 

Nick Joaquin left us with a description of Old Manila’s procesion de los procesiones. He said that in “an October evening while watching this procession of La Naval, and having divined, by a general excitement, the approach of the image, he ahs heard the cries of trumpets of the passing concourse. He has seen her blazed into vision against the skies of his city, born upon cloud of incense and music, her face on fire with jewels and mysterious with the veneration of centuries, with gleaming rainbows forming and falling all about her and silken doves bobbing whitely among her flowers of gold and silver –Oh, beautiful and radiant as an apparition! –the Presence at Lepanto, Lady and Queen and Mother of Manila and Virgin of the Fifteen Mysteries.”

 

 

The La Naval procession in Old Manila only features ten statues of Dominican saints like San Pedro Verona, Santa Rosa de Lima, Santo Tomas de Aquino, Santo Domingo de Guzman, San Jose, etc. They are interspersed with estandares or banners of the Fifteen Mysteries of the Holy Rosary. Still the La Naval de Manila is the longest and grandest of the Intramuros processions.  

 

 

 

 

 

It was a time-honored tradition in Old Manila for the faithful to kneel reverently even on the Intramuros cobbled streets as the image of the Nuestra Señora de Santissimo Rosario passed by during the La Naval de Manila Procession.

 

 

 

Last year we attended the Grand La Naval Procession at Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City. It was also same year when the centenary of the canonical coronation of the first Marian image in Philippines and in Asia was celebrated. We witness how the crowd went on a state of energetic calm while waving their white handkerchiefs in the air as the boat-shaped carroza bearing the La Naval exited the main door of Santo Domingo Church to the streets.

 

Fellow blogger Estan Cabigas captured the splendor of last year’s La Naval. 

 

Celebrating Saint Francis Day at the Manila Zoological and Botanical Gardens

 

October 4 is the feast day of San Francisco de Asis. The day is also recognized as the World Animal Day. That day was chosen because of the ecological reverence for nature and the animal world on the part of a holy man who sang of Brother Sun and Sister Moon, who once preached a sermon to the birds and gave absolution to a wolf. 

 

 

A great way to celebrate this day for God’s awesome creatures is to spend it at the Manila Zoological and Botanical Gardens along Adriatico Street in Manila. Aside from the reasonable collection of animals, the Manila Zoo has several picnic areas and playgrounds including an interactive fountain. Visitors may interact with animals at the Kinder Zoo or paddle around a small lagoon on rented boats. One may also bring home knick knacks from the various souvenir shops. 

 

 

 

The Saint of Ecology

 

The devotion to Saint Francis de Assisi was introduced to us by the Order of Friar Minors or Franciscans. The Franciscans were the second group of friars that came to the Philippines (June 24, 1578) after the Augustinians. The Yglesia de San Francisco was one of the most popular churches along Calle Muralla in pre-war Intramuros. It has a patio on which two churches as well as the first Franciscan mother-house in the Philippines once stood.

 

The Franciscans shared many stories about the life of Saint Francis that shows his love for nature and animals. One famous story is recounted in the Fioretti or the Little Flower. The story goes that while traveling with companions, they saw a tree filled with birds. Saint Francis asked his companions to wait while he preaches to “sister birds.” Miraculously, the birds surrounded him, drawn by the power of his voice and not one flew away while he delivers his sermon.

 

 

Another story is about a menacing wolf in the Italian town of Gubbio. Known to prey on other animals and men, the Wolf of Gubbio is widely feared. It is said that Saint Francis went up on a hills to find the savage creature. When he found the wolf, he made the sign of the cross and commanded the beast to come to him and hurt no one. Miraculously, the wolf has been tamed. Saint Francis brought the wolf into the town.  He explained to the town folks that the wolf had “done evil out of hunger.” The town folks then feed the wolf regularly and in return, the tamed wolf no longer preyed on their flocks. In this manner, the town of Gubbio was freed from the menacing predator.

 

 

It is also said that on his deathbed, Saint Francis thanked the donkey that carried and helped him throughout his life. Legend has it the donkey wept when the saint gave up his last breath.

 

 

Manila Zoo Attractions

 

 

 

Zoos are a mainstay in our travel itinerary, so a visit at Manila Zoological and Botanical Gardens is on us. The zoo opened its doors to the public on July 25, 1959.

 

Although we have heard feedback that the oldest zoo in the country is quite run-down and not being well- maintained, we still believe that the zoo serves as a perfect venue to learn interesting facts about the animal kingdom and an ideal place to appreciate the wonders of nature.

 

 

The Manila Zoo is not as big as Avilon Zoo in Montalban Rizal. But within its grounds are animals from the wild like the elephant, tigers, monkeys and hippo.

 

 

 

Like the Wildlife Rescue Center at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Nature Center, Manila Zoo also serves as sanctuary for endemic and indigenous Philippine animals like the Philippine crocodile, the Palawan porcupine, reticulated pythons, the Palawan bearded-pig and Palawan bearcat and deer.

 

 

I noticed that some added attractions which are not yet available when I last visited this zoo as a child several years ago. Aside from the animal collection, the Manila Zoo has been renovated making it more engaging and entertaining.

 

 

There are several playgrounds with slides, swings and monkey bars. An interactive fountain amuses both children and adults as they playfully avoid the water spitting from the fountain.

 

 

 

A boating lagoon similar to the one we paddled at Superferry Lagoon at La Mesa Dam Eco Park is also an addition.

 

 

 

 

 

Kinder Zoo

 

 

During grade school, I remember when we were asked to read the poem Laudes Creaturarum (Praise of the Creatures) also known as Canticle of the Sun. In this poem, Saint Francis expresses his appreciation for Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Fire and all of God’s creations personified in their fundamental forms. Saint Francis is the only known saint to have preached to men and beasts the universal responsibility of all creatures to praise God and the duty of men to be stewards of God’s creations.

 

 

Having a heart to care for animals begins as a child. The recently added Kinder Zoo is a petting zoo within the Manila Zoo. Similar to the activities at Malabon Zoo, the Kinder Zoo allows visitors to interact with animals.

 

At the Kinder Zoo, visitors are also given the opportunity to face and get rid of their fears of certain animals through touch and sense. Visitors can observe how these animals behave with humans around such as for those people with innate fear of reptiles or snakes, they can strike a pose with a baby crocodile or albino python.

 

 

 

For those children who wanted to experience striding on an animal, they can mount on a tortoise’s hard shell or miniature horse to get their pictures taken. All activities at the Kinder Zoo are meant to make people appreciate animals.

 

 

 

Although we still have a long way to be like Saint Francis in terms of his attitude towards the environment. But having a close encounter with animals in our zoos awakens our awareness that God has created a good and beautiful world that we need to protect and enjoy.