Viva la Virgen!

The Marian month of September has arrived and for this year, its coming is made greatly significant due to the three hundredth year celebration of the devotion to Our Lady of Peñafrancia that is being marked by the whole of Bikol. This September, the Tercentenary of the devotion to INA is grandly commemorated by the Bikolano people and all of INA's devotees.

The preparations for the meaningful celebration of this event have been underway since 2007, the most important of which was the visits of the image of INA to all the dioceses of Bikol-Pagsungko ni INA, it was called-up until August of this year. These visits of INA's image served to underscore that the "Peñafrancia Fiesta" is essentially and primarily a religious celebration, and not a week-long commercial and merrymaking event for pageantry, street parties, and unbridled profit-making.

The annual Traslacion-traditionally, the transfer of the INA's image from the Basilica Minore to the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral-commences this year at the patio of the Peñafrancia Shrine, at the Plaza de Covarrubias. Traditionally too, this procession in which devotees bear the andas of INA and that of the Divino Rostro or Holy Face of Christ to the Cathedral has been characterized by the unruliness of some voyadores who are often drunk or tipsy. We urge them, as devotees of INA, to revel in their passion for INA (and not her image) by demonstrating their ebullience in a less rowdy manner lest they turn the procession simply into a rite for expressing one's machismo.

Still, let us not be deluded and be puritanical: the voyadores' exuberance for INA during the Traslacion and Fluvial procession is now part and parcel of the Peñafrancia celebrations. It has a significant place in our commemoration of our devotion to INA and should not be summarily shunned.

Ultimately, as joyous bellows of "Viva la Virgen" and "Viva el Divino Rostro" ring through the air all throughout this month, and most especially during this Friday's Traslacion, let us be made aware that our rejoicing is not revelry for its own sake; we do not cry out an empty "Viva!" which has no object other than merrymaking itself. Rather, we triumphantly shout "Viva la Virgen! Viva el Divino Rostro!" during this Marian month of September because of who we are as a people: thankful daughters and sons of God's mother, a people in love with INA, the Patroness of Bikolandia.