The Merry Month of May

The merry month of May is celebrated with various festivities such as Santacruzan, Flores de Mayo, Kasilonawan or Obando Fertility Rites and the Pahiyas. However, the Flores de Mayo is considered the most regal of the fiestas and the Santacruzan as the Queen of Filipino festivals.

The month of May offers more than the religious festivities. It also showcases the historical and Filipino traditions. Filipinos, with their sense of revelry, believe that the traditional merry making assures bountiful harvest.

The Santacruzan reenact the search for the Holy Cross by Queen Helena and her son, the newly converted Emperor Constantine. They found it in Jerusalem and brought it back to Rome where there was celebration and thanksgiving. Prior to this, however, is a nine-day novena in honor of the Holy Cross preceding the Santacruzan.

Introduced by the Spanish conqueror in the Philippines, it has become part of the Filipino tradition identified with love and romance. It is a week-long pageant in every town, honoring beautiful maidens with their escorts under the bamboo arches adorned with native flowers.

At the head of the long procession is the Metsuselah bent with age, riding a cart while tasting some grains of sand – a reminder that what glitters will end up to dust. Behind him is the Banderada, a young lady dressed in red, and carrying a miniature Philippine flag. Next in line are half-clad little boys, their bodies blackened with soot, representing the unconverted Philippine pagans and a woman dressed in a Muslim costume representing Muslim Philippines.

Then follow representations of Catholic virtues… faith, Reina de Fe; hope, Reina Esperanza and charity, Reina Caridad. Next to it is the Abogada, dressed in a graduation toga, and the blind folded justice, carrying scales in her hand.

Biblical characters also join in the procession, like the Samaritan woman whom Christ spoke to at the well. Reina Judith, who saved her city from the Assyrians after she was beheaded by Holofernes, Reina Esther, the biblical Jew who spared her countrymen from persecution and, Queen Sheba who visited the famed Solomon and was overwhelmed by his wisdom and power. Then came the secondary and tertiary reinas. Pretty young girls parade under bamboo arches adorned with native flowers. At the end of the line is the Queen Helena, escorted by Prince Constantine.

Other members of the procession is the Divina Pastora, the Divine Shepherdess who carries the shepherdess stuff: Reina de los Estrellas, the Queen of the Stars, Reina de los Flores (who walks with a handsome escort under the canopy of flowers) and Reina de las Rosas, Mystical Rose. There are groups of young girls garbed in angelic costumes that follow the sagalas.

The slow and steady beat of the band or rondalla, the firing of the rockets, the sweet smell of the sampaguita, kalachuchi and other native flowers, and the chanting of prayers by the devotees holding lighted candles make up mesmerizing combination of sight, sound and smell that adds up to a sense of solemnity and fun.