For Bikolanos, especially those residing in Naga City and its nearby environs, it’s that time of the year again: the regional feast of our favorite Ina – Nuestra Senora de Peñafrancia, our beloved patroness and succor.
As the Virgin Mary is at home at the Basilica Minore, it is therefore obligated that all residents of Naga City who are devotees must play the roles as congenial hosts to the thousands of visitors and other devotees who will surely troop to Bikol to witness and become part of its colorful and pious celebration.
There is of course the rowdy Traslacion and the lethargic Novena, and the solemn Fluvial Procession that never fails to raise the goose bumps of those who watch Ina’s pagoda as it passes by.
And then there are the secular, plebian, and commercial events that make their presence felt yearly with their tawdry goods and wares for sale in tiangges, the loud and noisy rock concerts that possess the youth, the endless pageants that strut the nubile young bodies of budding Bikolanas at the cusp of womanhood, and even the hunks, the gays, and the kiddies have their own versions of beauty and talent pageants.
And who hasn’t experienced the hassle of trying to meander the streets and byways of downtown Naga at the thick of the civic, drum and bugle, and the crowd pleaser – the military parades?
Every year, the list of participants becomes longer, the parade costumes become kitschier, the participants become younger, the crowds become thicker, the hecklers become noisier, the vendors become more resourceful, and the pedestrians generally become meaner.
These things happen every September because it’s fiesta. It’s a time to reconnect with friends, reunite with families, rediscover histories, reinvent personalities, repent character flaws, and release those pent up emotions that are kept inside ourselves as we lead seemingly normal lives in normal times.
It is also an opportunity to return to faith, keep in touch with our spiritual selves, heal those spiritual wounds, and renew us for the rest of the year, hopefully, for the rest of our lives.
But no matter: when we fail to do all these things now, we can always come back next fiesta time and do all these things all over again.
The beauty of it all is that there is always a second chance.
Viva La Virgen!