Sta. Marta de Pateros Fiesta

Pateros is a small modern city in Metro Manila. It is traditionally known for its duck egg industry and for its folks who love their traditions.

The fiesta of Sta. Marta, held every second Sunday of February is a well-loved tradition in Pateros. It is a thanksgiving celebration to Sta. Marta for saving Pateros’ duck egg industry.

In the olden days, town fiestas are the most exciting time of the year. It was a time when the town plaza and the church patio are crowded with people playing games at the feria, watching roving bands of musicians and participating in church-led activities and religious processions.

There is no doubt that it was fiesta day in Pateros as we walked our way to the church from Pateros Bridge. The street leading to the church is crowded with people, peddlers and products.  Sold side by side with suman wrapped in leaves are folksy clay pots and red prayer candles, shaped in human form.

Under the sunny morning sky, devotees form a long line to have a chance to say their petitions and touch the image of Sta. Marta in the church patio.

Sta. Marta is patron of cooks, washerwoman and all motherly duties. In Pateros,  she is the patron of duck raising where her folksy image is shown as if crushing a crocodile with her dainty feet.

According to legend, Sta. Marta did away the crocodiles that were wreaking havoc in the town’s duck egg industry. Thanks to Sta. Marta, Pateros is known today as the balut capital.

After the high mass, a roving band of musicians began playing fandango music. The image of Sta. Marta is then carried outside the church by a group of fandango-dancing strong men. Everybody fell in a trance dancing the fandango while chanting the song for their patroness.

We almost got crushed while following the massive crowd into the street but the technique to survive the Sta. Marta procession is to sway the same direction the fandango dancers go.

Traditional festival have become modern and commercialized. It is very seldom to see today in urban Metro Manila an old-fashioned fiesta like the Sta. Marta de Pateros Fiesta.

-Feast of Sta. Marta 2014

Pista ng Santo Niño at San Beda

Current and former students of San Beda College know that red is our color and the last Sunday of January is the Pista ng Santo Niño.

It has been a tradition that only at this time of year that the image of the Santo Niño de Praga is taken down from its niche high in the main altar of the Abbey of Our Lady of Monserrat in Mendiola. Devotees form a long line to have the chance to touch and kiss the carved image of the Holy Child before it is mounted to its silver carroza for a solemn procession around the San Miguel district of Manila.

Not too many people know that during the first Pista ng Sto. Niño in 1904, a framed picture of the Holy Child was taken to the procession in lieu of a carved statue. The exquisitely carved statue of the Santo Niño de Praga that we see today was commissioned by famous santero Máximo Vicente for the Benedictines of Mendiola.

The cult of the Holy Child in the country began four centuries ago.  The image of the Sto. Niño that arrived in the Philippines with Ferdinand Magellan in 1521, that was recovered  and re-enthroned by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and enshirned today in the minor basilica in Cebu is the oldest Christian image in the country. The Sto. Niño de Cebu is believed to have been carved in Flanders in the 15th of century and was presented as a baptismal gift to the converted Queen Juana.

The Benedictine monks began to spread the devotion to the Santo Niño de Praga in the Philippines only during the last turn-of- the-century. Its first devotees were the students from the Colegio de San Beda who establish the Confraternity of the Infant Jesus. The traditional procession of the Sto. Niño with the image made by Maximo Vicente as the focus of devotion was first held in January 20, 1905.

The solemn tradition lives on today with devotees forming a long line under the magnificent murals and paintings of the abbey. It is a moving scene to witness how the young and old have a quick moment to touch, kiss and say a prayer to the Santo Niño before it is taken to the procession.

With the peeling of the church bells, the Santo Niño is brought to the silver carroza waiting by the church entrance. A huge crowd in red clothes cheers as the carroza bearing the Santo Niño is pulled and joins the procession.

Red is the color of San Beda College since its students are traditionally known as Red Lions. If this passionate and heroic color has any connection to the Santo Niño, it must be that red symbolizes the color of the General. Remember that when the Santo Niño was introduced in Cebu, he was given the title as El Capitan General.

While most Sto. Niño festivals around the country are known for the mardi gras-type of parade, the Santo Niño procession led by the Benedictine community and San Beda College students and alumni is simple and sober. Joining the Santo Niño de Praga in the procession are images of Benedictine saints like St. Benedict of Nursia, St. Bede or popularly known as Venerable Bede and the patroness of the abbey, Our Lady of Monserrat.

As the procession inched its way around the San Miguel district, participants recite the rosary or exchange pleasantries as this event is also a reunion among the alumni of the college.  It is an important event that proud Bedans look forward to for us reconnect with our  brothers and reflect on the values that we’ve learned in school.

Traveler on Foot Year 6

TOF is six years old today. Thank you for traveling with us.

We Are Home this Christmas

♫ ♩ngunit kahit na anung mangyari ang pagibig ang maghari. Sapat na si Jesus ang kasama mo.
Tuloy na tuloy pa rin ang Pasko! ♬♪

Garapata Exhibit at the Collective

Every living creature on the face of the earth deserves to be immortalized in art. For the creator of the Garapata Man, the blood-sucking crawler is no exception. This round, multi-legged, puffy-eyed character has become an urban icon.

We were first introduced to the Garapata Man and its creator at the Escolta Saturday Market. When we asked the artist why he chose the garapata as the subject for his art, he directs us to the social reality of Filipinos that like the garapata – ‘kahit saang sulok ng mundo may Pinoy na makikita.’

We took part in the opening of the Garapata Exhibit at The Collective last Saturday. For this exhibit, the gallery has been transformed into a hive where the crawlers were all over walls and are scattered in random corners as functional stools and wooden pieces of art.

Spectators watched a video showing how the wooden pieces were individually carved.

During our walks around the city, we’ve seen the garapata icon on bus seats, streetlamps, food carts, and sometimes in unexpected spaces. But while the garapata continues to become part of the urban streetscape, it is gradually evolving into something functional. For now, sling bags, t-shirts, coloring books, necklace pendants or keychain, and wooden stools are available.

There is something to look forward to on what the creator of the garapata will think of next.