Anticipating Fiesta

Slowly, my sleepy town comes to life. Slowly, Balete flips its calendar as October draws near.

The cool, damp morning breeze awakens Baleten-ons to some imperceptible frantic worries. The inattentive always complain of almost grasping the meaning behind the restlessness and the anxiety. But for Wawaw, though he may be partially deaf, he senses that the month of September sounds similar as October and he would salivate for that ice-cold San Miguel Beer served by Arlie's househelp. Ah, fiesta eon man! Really, fiesta eon man sa banwa!

Traditionally, Balete Fiesta is set every October 24 based on old canonical calendar which determine the feast day of the Archangel Rafael. This year though, October 24 falls on a Sunday which is of course the Lord's Day, the day in a week where Christians celebrate the resurrection and the rest of the paschal mysteries of the Lord. It is a remembrance which is sine qua non to all the other Christian feast. As such, basing on the canons of the Catholic church, the feast of the Lord's Day which is the primary holyday of obligation could not be superseded by feastday dedicated to Mary, the saints or an archangel for that matter. Hence, St. Rafael's feast, following the logic of Canon Law, is to be celebrated this year on October 23, a Saturday.

The Baleten-on faithful is not stranger to this adjustment. There had been instances in the past when Balete observed the feast of its patron saint on October 23. From 1994 to 1997, the Christian community under the pastorate of Fr. Tito Gelito moved the feast to October 23 over a clashed of orientations with the civil government vis-a-vis its attempt in giving witness to the message of Jesus. The civic and religious fiesta were simultaneously celebrated again in 1998 when a representative of the local government promised the then new parish priest of Balete that it will recognize and respect the priorities and the schedule of the parish throughout the duration of the fiesta celebration. Thus, it was a fact that in those years the eve of the fiesta was truly a vesper night, i.e., a night of prayer, preparations, reconciliation, family reunion.

Of course, the restless youth and the "feeling" youth were not happy that there was no binayle during Besperas. The good news then was that the tanods and the police did not have head aches dealing with riots while residents won't have to prepare dinuguan and pansit for patrons of benefit dance.