Defining the Peñafrancia Fiesta

Out with the new, in with the old. This I am told by several friends that this 300th Peñafrancia Festivities will be undergoing a major face lift. No more of the Miss Bicolandia Pageant (to be moved to before Traslacion or after the Fiesta). Scrap the Civic Parade, in with the Perdon which was done in prior years. Apparently, the city has seen the last of the wild beer parties.

This comes amidst an aggressive effort of the church and the city government to preserve the solemnity and religiosity of the occasion.

A band aid on gunshot wound? Definitely.

It has been decades that this occasion has diminished its aura of solemnity and religiosity. What kind of solemnity can you expect out of drunk men wrestling over the chance to touch the image? They could freely visit Ina at the Basilica for 365 days, and yet they wait at this very day, bathe themselves with gin, walk on foot, and box out the crowd to expect some miracle from touching the image?!

Can banning street parties remedy the fact that on the day of the festivities, it is all about the drinking sprees and less and less about the praying? Hypocrisy is what I see when in the past I have seen members of the congregation dancing the night away in those street parties, or conspicuously hiding in a crowd of partygoers.

How ever these people may deny it. Fiestas has long transformed into a civic and commercial occasion. Midnight mall sales, dolphin attractions, visiting rock bands, and street parties has slowly defined the Penafrañcia fiesta.

The question has evolved to:
Isay maarabot na artista?
Hanggang alas dose kayan ang SM?
Isay nanggana sa Miss Bicolandia?
Daog si Ateneo sa military?
Sain ngunyan na banggui may street party?

This attempt to purify the occasion is two decades too late. While commendable at the least, another failed attempt by our church and city leaders to straighten a backbone that in the prolonged crookedness has hardened to a hunchback. Goodluck with that band aid.