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| The Author |
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(The author, a fourth year high school student at the Ateneo de Naga University, is associate editor of the BLUE AND GOLD, the school publication on which this article first appeared. He topped the graduating class at the Naga Parochial School and was an exchange student visitor to the Japan recently. He is the eldest son of Engr. Francis Alarkon and Engr. Maria Luisa Peña Alarkon and a grandson of the CRANE MONITOR editor)
Throughout Bicol’s history, countless festivities and celebrations have been introduced to and by Bicolanos and were eventually integrated into the society’s culture and traditions. Through the years, majority of the Bicol populace have lived life in the Catholic fashion and practised customs and traditions of faith. Bicolanos have been identified to be good in merging the Bicol ethos and the Catholic belief into united forms of refinements and ideologies. The fused identity of the Bicolano culture and the Catholic tenets have significantly sculpted the remarkable life of a Bicolano. These ideas and practices have been the lasting legacy of our ancestors and forefathers. For many generations, the Bicolano heritage has been passed on just like when a father teaches his son the secret techniques in making a delectable delicacy. However, in these days, many people and even Bicolanos themselves would wonder and even doubt if they are still living life the Bicolano way.
The Peñafrancia Festival for the sixth year of the third millennium had been considerably better and improved in several aspects compared to previous celebrations of the religious event. For this year, there had been the prompt transfer of the image of Our Lady of Peñafrancia from the Basilica Minore to the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral and vice-versa. There had been flamboyant and exciting parades around the city during the week-long celebration. Loads of souvenir shops and stalls just cropped up out of the blue along the streets of the city. For many days, the streets of Naga have been jammed with blaring vehicles and toddling residents and tourists. Many schools, institutions, and religious orders and organizations had been invited to take part in religious activities and other forms of devotion to Our Lady. And if one has been into the Peñafrancia Festival for several years, it would be definitely observed that there had been an abrupt rise in the number of people holidaying in the city of Naga. Traditionally, people all over the country or even those from countries abroad visit and gather together in Naga City when the month of September comes with the reason and intention of participating in the annual religious festivity of Our Lady of Peñafrancia.
Many decades ago, the celebration of the festivity of Our Lady of Peñafrancia had been very solemn and strictly formal as ordered by priests and the elderly members of families and religious orders, since it is a religious affair. Sometimes, people even had to experience the celebration in an austerely means. The reason for this is that they believed that this way they should be able to better carry out and fulfill the vows they took as a way of thanksgiving to the Blessed Virgin Mary. But for some unknown reasons, this formality, solemnity and sincerity that marked past celebrations of the religious festivity have been gradually worn out by the succeeding generations. More and more people have ignored the real beginnings, grounds and purpose of celebrating the Peñafrancia Festival. More and more people have disregarded and turned their backs against the practices of novenas, participation in the Holy Mass and other religious and spiritual involvements. What the people know is that every year, when the ninth month of the year comes and people begin to crowd in the streets of Naga City, they must prepare tasty dishes and dish out beers and wines, the Peñafrancia Festival has begun, and the time for merry-making has also kicked off. These are plainly shallow and petty reasons for observing the annual festivity of Our Lady of Peñafrancia.
This year’s Peñafrancia Festival has drawn in lots of modern musical bands, celebrity entourages, leisurely events and shows, amusement groups, and the like into the city. And the supposedly religious fete turned out to be a concert and street party, entertainment and show hot spot that has enticed the youth towards merrymaking instead of guiding their attention towards the solemn, faithful and sincere devotion to Our Lady of Peñafrancia. People would go out every night for their nightlife in many different clubs and restaurants available in the city. Many would visit their relatives and friends, knowing that they have prepared foods for the festivity. Many would even reason out that the festivity is a time for fun and enjoyment so that they can drink and smoke till they drop. The purpose of some people is to do something fun and blithe on the eyes of others. These people have been very enthusiastic and eager when it comes to activities of leisure and fun. But when the time comes for them to be in religious vigils, prayers, novenas and Holy Mass, it seems that a mysterious epidemic has struck and the people became extremely susceptible to it, causing them to be incapacitated in time for the religious events that would happen. It seems that the modern-day Bicolano has become perversely ridiculous. It appears that the power of the clubs, concerts, celebrities, beers and cigarettes has overshadowed the power of the Bicolano devotion to Our Lady of Peñafrancia.
Indeed, it is dismaying and frustrating at the same time that what should have taken place in the religious festival of Our Lady of Peñafrancia barely materialized. It does not give justice and validity to the festivity if people would argue that it is a time for enjoyment and merry-making. The people should still remind themselves that the solemnity and sanctity of the celebration should have the greater significance and influence over their decisions and actions. Although the festivity also calls for merriment and relaxation, people should not forget that the conservative and traditional exercises should be the priority. People should learn how to live out the true spirit and meaning of the feast of Our Lady of Peñafrancia in the Bicol Region. It is never too late to amend the twisted ways and to further ameliorate the religious customs of the Bicolano people. And so, is the Peñafrancia Festival a bona fide and justifiable alibi for fun? I believe it should never be.
