Barrio fiesta in San Vicente (San Pedro Tunasán, La Laguna)!

Capilla de San Vicente Ferrer.

Here at our home in Barrio San Vicente, the sweltering heat during the first few days of April reminds us not only of the beginning of summer but also the feast day of our namesake patron saint: the Spanish priest and confessor, Vincent Ferrer. April 5, the date of his death, became his feast day.

The city of San Pedro Tunasán, La Laguna where our barrio belongs was first founded by the Jesuits. But when they were kicked out of the Philippine Islands (an awfully long story), the Dominicans took over. It was surely them who gave the name San Vicente to our barrio because the said saint was also a Dominican friar during his lifetime.

An image of Saint Vincent Ferrer at the altar, at the foot of the Holy Cross of our Lord and Savior.

Saint Vincent Ferrer hails from the old Kingdom of Valencia. He was born on 23 January 1350 and entered the Dominican Order during his late teens where he studied philosophy and theology. There he lived the life of a hermit, reading nothing but Sacred Scripture (which he eventually memorized!). As a philosopher, he published a treatise on Dialectic Suppositions after his solemn profession. He then became a Master of Sacred Theology. He was then sent to Barcelona and eventually to the University of Lleida in Catalonia where he earned his doctorate in theology.

Later in life, he traveled to different parts of Europe preaching the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and converting many people to Christianity. Many attested that the Lord God blessed him with the gift of tongues.

Vincent Ferrer died on 5 April 1419. Since then, that date has become his feast day. More than three decades after his death in Brittany, France, Vincent Ferrer was canonized by Pope Calixtus III.

Last April 5, a very hot Saturday, we toured our barrio's matrix, i.e., our chapel's environs, to experience once again its summery sights and sounds. We just got sunburned a few days before in an enchanting beach somewhere in Batangas City, but we didn't mind; we had sunscreen all over our skin during our fiesta saunter! =)

Calle García with colorful banderitas hung over it. The word, which is plural, is Spanish for "small flags". Banderitas are familiar street decorations during fiestas, adding up to the festive mood. No fiesta would be complete without them.
We used to live on this street from 2004 to 2007 before transferring to nearby Calle San Vicente, our barrio's main road. This one here leads to the national road (Pan Philippine Highway, otherwise known as Maharlika Highway).

The very short Chapel Road. It is called as such because it leads straight to the gates of the Chapel of Saint Vincent Ferrer.

Barrio San Vicente is the second largest barrio (as a Filipino wary of my national identity, I refrain from using the word barangay) in San Pedro Tunasán, the largest being Barrio San Antonio. San Vicente covers an area of around 665 hectares. But in terms of population, it is the town’s largest: it has more or less 97,000 residents. San Vicente also has a few plantations dedicated to mangoes and sinigüelas. Some residents here also raise fowl and cattle. There are also a few remaining sampaguita backyard farms. Actually, San Pedro Tunasán's reputation as the "Sampaguita Capital of the Philippines" began here in San Vicente.

Our ever-busy parish priest, Fr. Pablo "Paul" Búgay officiating a mass baptism.  Our chapel gets filled up like this only during the town fiesta, usually for the Sacrament of Baptism. The chapel is seldomly used because, to my observation, people prefer to flock to the nearby parish church.

After the sacramental rites.

Capilla de San Vicente Ferrer.

My boys with an image of Saint Vincent Ferrer, our barrio's patron saint, by the wickets of the chapel.

Marching bands during the fiesta are everywhere. During the Spanish times, San Pedro Tunasán used to have a popular marching band. Even José Rizal made mention of it in one of his novels.

Calle Laguerta. They renamed it Oliver in honor of the family who donated the land on which the chapel stands. But many people still call it Laguerta, a word that was derived from the Spanish "La Huerta" meaning "vegetable garden". Obviously, there was such a garden (or farm) there. But aside from that, there also used to be a cemetery in Laguerta during the Spanish times. Now the site is filled up with houses. I wonder if people there know its past.

The heart of every barrio in our country is, of course, its chapel which is the focal point of a sub-parish, called a visita during Spanish times. During those solemn years in Philippine History, visitas were established in order to attend to parishioners who live far away from the town church. Today, the chapel of San Vicente Ferrer tends to the Catholic faithful of Barrio San Vicente whenever the main parish of San Pedro Apóstol couldn't do so.

The current site of this chapel was donated by the Oliver Family in 1902. The chapel was then made of wooden materials and was only used during Holy Week and the town fiesta. The chapel was burned down in an accidental fire. It was rebuilt in 1965. The current structure —actually quite large for a chapel— is made of stone and adobe. It was designed by Architect Isidro Pili.

Back home, we had a simple handâ of fried lapu-lapu (grouper), whole roasted chicken, chicken curry, and watermelons. Also, we had a surprise visit from my maternal cousin, Jerome Corsega (my daughter's godfather), whom I haven't seen for years!

After lunch, we trouped to the Igonia Compound in nearby Calle Igonia for more lunch, hehehe! Jerome's mom (my mother's sister who is also my godmother) and daughter were there.  Both street and property were named after one of the oldest families of San Pedro Tunasán. Actually, Jerome's elder sister Jonafel married into the Igonia Clan. It was Jonafel and her husband who helped us find a place here to stay a decade ago.

At the Igonia compound. Clockwise, from upper left: Jefe climbing a macopa tree (Syzygium samarangense); with Mama Beth Corsega, Jerome and Jonafel's mom (these past few years, we only see each other here at the Igonia Compound during our barrio's fiesta); my boys and some of the Igonia brood; me on an antique rocking chair; Tita Fina (Josefina Igonia vda. de Tatlongmaría), Jonafel's gracious mother-in-law; some of Tita Fina's handâ.

Clockwise, from upper left: Yeyette and Krystal with my cousin Jonafel and her youngest, baby Nica; Yeyette and Jonafel's mom-in-law, Tita Fina; Jonafel and her husband Dodie Tatlongmaría with their baby girl, and; Jonafel's eldest son Joshua playing hoops with an Igonia cousin.

Preparing the carroza (parade float) of the original image of Saint Vincent Ferrer. The administrators of our sub-parish/barrio entrusted this holy icon to Serge Igonia (in white shirt). Every year during the fiesta, he prepares the carroza for the procession. Various carrozas and images of the saint belonging to well-off San Pedrense families are being paraded every year on the night of the fiesta.
Serge Igonia, by the way, is a renowned local florist who masterfully designed Yeyette's wedding bouquet last year.

Flower designer guru Serge Igonia with my wife.

¡Abá'y siempre hindí puedeng maualâ ang inuman capág fiesta! Pero palaguing pacatándaan: iderecho ang alcohol hindí sa utac cundí sa tian. ¿Entiendes?. =)

Yeyette with Serge's sister Helen.

Of all the streets in our barrio, Calle Igonia was the most decorative and most festive for this year's fiesta.

Basagáng palayóc literally means "hitting" or "breaking the clay pot", a usual fixture in fiesta parlor games. Here, blindfolded children armed with a wooden bat attempt to hit and break a hanging clay pot filled with goodies such as small toys, candies, chocolates, coins, and sometimes flour or powder as a bonus prank. Children line up one by one, and each of them are given only one chance to hit and break the clay pot. Once broken, it's a free-for-all as all the participants can pick up as much goodies as they could. The one who hits the clay pot wins a much bigger prize, usually money. My boys lined up for the game but somebody else already hit the clay pot before one of them could even attempt to play. Nevertheless, it was their first time to witness a classic Filipino parlor game!

Palo-sebo (combined Spanish for stick/pole grease) is another traditional Filipino game that is popular during fiestas. It is a game that Filipinos got from a similar Spanish game called "cucaña". The rules of Palo-sebo is very simple: contestants will have to climb a tall, greased up bamboo pole to secure the flag which is set on top of it. Whoever gets to the top and gets the flag wins a prize money. Simple rule, but difficult to accomplish. Here we waited and waited for people to climb the pole, but nobody attempted. I asked permission from Yeyette, but she gave me a dagger look, LOL! We got tired of waiting after several minutes more, so we left the pole. I still have no idea if somebody won this year's Palo-sebo. Because this one looked so high: about two or three stories tall!

Agauán ng buco is only for the toughest kids in the neighborhood. Each participant tries to steal ("agao") a greased green coconut ("buco") from other opponents. Rules vary from place to place. Here in Calle Igonia. the one who is able to hold on to the coconut for the longest time is the winner. This is one game I could and will never attempt.

So pretty! A bahay na bató along Calle San Vicente (near Calle Igonia).

Now this is why our city is called the "Sampaguita Capital of the Philippines"! Scenes like this are plentiful throughout our place. This was my first attempt at sewing a sampaguita necklace. I failed miserably. Making a sampaguita necklace doesn't seem that easy after all.
Special thanks to the Patricio family for allowing us to take their pictures (and video) while making sampaguita necklaces.

We got some free sampaguita necklaces from our friendly neighbors! Far in the distance is our parish church.
Here we await the night procession of San Vicente Ferrer carrozas with their decorated and dressed up images.

Nighttime.

The procession.

Fireworks as seen from our apartment unit. See that house in front of us? It's a small bahay na bató that has been abandoned for years. I give it three to five more typhoons and it will topple down. =( 

The Filipino fiesta, a celebration of the feast days of patron saints, is another denominator that sets us Filipinos apart from our Asian neighbors. And even though our country has been very secularized over the years, it might take another devastating war to totally erase this Hispanic imprint that we have imbibed from a past so glorious yet ignorantly reviled. Rizal, when he was still a young Mason, scoffed at this religio-cultural event as nothing more but superstition and a waste of money. But young that he was, he missed the point that the town fiesta was not exactly all about extravagance. Aside from honoring a particular patron saint's feast day, the fiesta was indeed a celebration of life which can even be traced way back before the advent of the Spaniards. To haters of this fun but sacred Filipino tradition, National Artist Nick Joaquín has something for you:

It’s ironic, therefore, that those who look back with such reverence to our pre-Hispanic culture should be the loudiest sneerers at Christianity in the Philippines as being mere folk Catholicism, or superstition. They mourn for being lost what they attack for surviving. When they decry the town fiesta they are decrying the old pagan harvest festival, which, as may be observed in the highlands of the North, also entailed open doors, loaded tables and a lot of conspicuous consumption.

As I have contended in the past, the Filipino Identity is an amalgam of both east and west. But it is the Hispanic in us which has given style and decorum and color and faith and swagger and uniqueness to that almost mindless conspicuous consumption. So learn to love what has become of us for three centuries for it can never be replaced. It is something bequeathed to us by our forefathers.

This part of our collective life as Filipinos indeed needs a more fresher and hate-free appraisal.

Click here for the fiesta album! And please don't forget to LIKE us on Facebook! ¡Hasta la vista!