THE MERRY MONTH OF MAY, Part I
By Rudy M. Viernes
May is the month of fiestas, State it the other way. We Filipinos are never more fiesta-prone than during the month of May. May is also the flower month, and the Virgin Mary. .
Being family-oriented as we Filipinos are May isn’t just a month of fiestas, of flowers but for mothers as well. In the Filipino home we have “Itay” and “Inay.” Itay is the King, pillar, wall, support, discipline. Inay is the Queen, warmth, heart, comfort. It Itay and Inay rule according to roles there is family accord, unity, harmony. Mother’s Day is May 12 this year.
Fiesta Month. In every little town and village in the countryside the annual fiesta in May is an anticipated, well-planned event. It is the centerpiece of all village activities. Moribund most part of the year the village perks up when the next fiesta is planned. There would be fanfare and Ferris wheels. The central focus is the selection of a fiesta queen whose parents, by necessity, will be the host. They would lay out their best china and lavish the dining table with sumptuous fares. For entertainment the guests would have sing-a-longs, or play the CDs of Gary Valenciano or Martin Nievera. They would bring out the photo album that contain souvenir photos taken in Saudi or Hongkong. The cassette component is dustied off for display. For drinks they toast to either Ginebra or San Miguel, or both, or the local wine basi or lambanog, with kilawen as pulutan. Let there be a festive day!
Guests would come and go from far and wide, relatives or not, invited or not. They would be hosts for the day and their daughter queen for a night. The governor or congressman would crown her. Why, the occasion happens only once in a lifetime they would be toasts of village society. They should celebrate. Bahala na.. It’s hiya typified. Image. Karangalan. .
There were reformers who viewed fiestas with disdain because they often border to worldly frolic and excessive fanfare that tend to overshadow the religious aspect. The late Sen. Raul Manglapuz launched a movement not to ban fiestas but to curtail its pomp and excesses; that the people should realize what entails to overspend for fleeting pleasures. He said that if the money spent for the gluttonous feasting were spent for more productive pursuits there would be progress. His catchphrase then was “Fiestas for Progress.”
Manglapuz mentioned the example of Pateros which at that time made progress because the townspeople pulled their resources to form cooperatives to produce balut, a popular delicacy but pretty hairy-scary to the naive. Manglapuz campaigned for agricultural fairs to showcase the fruits of the land. To encourage excellence of farm produce there would be awards for the largest kalabasa, the longest upo, the fattest swine, the handsomest cow.
What happens when the party is over and the guests have gone and the giddy queenship fizzles out into memory? The family would be beset with debt problems—how to pay back the money they have borrowed at usurious rates.
But the fiestas have survived. Nobody would want them abolished. Not the fatalists who philosophize that the annual fiesta is an occasion to enjoy for tomorrow they die. They think that fiestas are the be-all and end-all of life. They account for the totality of the thrills and frolic that they enjoy the entire year. For once they have the excuse to splurge a little, to indulge a little to make up for all the days of boredom and sloth. Not the town kura paroko who would make hay because it’s boom time for baptisms, confirmations, church weddings; when the Ninangs and Ninongs and the more affluent in town would feel more generous with their contributions. (Part II next issue)