I miss the Santacruzan

I hope after the ballotting of the May 9 elections and when most winners are proclaimed, we get back to our senses and look at how important Filipino traditions are

Lost amidst the noise and the hustle and bustle of the political contests, which almost everyone is focused on is the traditional Santacruzan. It’s been a long time since I heard the song, Diyos te salve Maria ... beautiful ladies, beauty queens and barrio lasses of substance parading on town streets. I hope after the ballotting of the May 9 elections and when most winners are proclaimed, we get back to our senses and look at how important Filipino traditions are. (Anyway, most election winners can’t be found once proclaimed. Kaniya kaniyang bakasyon at taguan.)

Many writers always describe the fifth month in the calendar as the merry month of May. Festivities in many towns throughout the country are being held this month. It was so in my youth. It is so described because people then looked forward to town fiestas. A time to visit friends and relatives. The enthusiasm among many people waned compared to yesteryears’s celebrations. I remember I used to accompany my mother when she visited her cumadres in Sta. Rita town which celebrates its fiesta on the 22nd and in the City of San Fernando on the 30th. After hearing mass in the town church, we spent almost the whole day visiting her friends and relatives and us bringing some gifts to the house owners.

Fiestas are still being held today in many cities, towns and barangays all over the country, but they somehow lost the appeal due to the realities of today where people prefer to go to malls, where they can have those affordable buffet, “eat all you can,” unli samgyupsal instead of looking for kin’s and friends’ houses in celebration. Fiestas today are no longer grand but because of tradition, they refuse to die. The yesteryears’ fiestas featured coronations of beauty queens, the serenatas of competing bands, the musical jamborees on makeshift stages, the amateur contests, and of course, the colorful procession.

Another festivity this month is the Santacruzan. It is also called “Flores de Mayo,” meaning flowers in May. It is some kind of a religious and historical pageant featuring the Reyna Helena and his escort Constantino, and some sagalas in tow. The Reyna Helena is a personification of Helena of Constantinople who brought with her a crucifix and is in search of the Holy Grail. The Reyna Helena is almost always the most beautful pick among the local lasses. Or sometimes hermano mayoras and mayores would import a movie starlet or a beauty queen to be the Helena.

Normally the parade was backed by a brass band playing, and a choir singing “Dios te salve,” the Spanish version of Hail Mary. It would culminate in a “pabitin” where a bamboo pole is smeared with grease.

Prize money awaits at the top for whoever can pick it.

This month, some cities, towns and barangays are mulling plans to hold their respective Santacruzans. I Googled to find out who should be participating in the Flores De Mayo for reference and authenticity, and here is the list:

Matusalem, bearded with age. Reyna Banderada, queen with a banner. Three aetas, dark skinned indigenous people. Reyna Mora, represents Muslim Filipinos. Reyna ng Saba (Sheba), represents unnamed queen who visited King Solomon. Ruth and Noemi, ancestresses of King David. Reyna Judith, the biblical widow. Reyna Esther, the Jewish queen of Persia. Cleopatra, the famous last pharaoh of Egypt.

Samaritana, the woman at the well who conversed with Christ. Sta. Veronica, the woman who wiped the face of Christ. Tres Marias, three Marys associated with the entombment of Christ. Reyna Fe, Esperanza and Caridad, representing faith, hope and charity. Reyna Sentenciada, her hands bound by a rope, stands for the early Christians. Reyna de las Flores carries a bouquet of flowers. Reyna Helena is the last member in the procession.

For further authenticity, get a Goido, the moorish highwayman who with his troops tries to halt the procession. I always love looking back. I romanticize a lot. I am writing about it for the millennials.