The Essence of Fiesta Celebrations

In the Philippines, every town, city, barangay and the smallest sitios celebrates the feast of their Patron Saint. The Parish Church usually leads these annual celebrations which usually includes processions around towns, novenas, religious undertakings or shows which usually depicts the lives of these Patron Saints or Jesus Himself. However, as time goes by, Fiesta celebrations has gotten a new meaning in the lives of the residents of these places.

In our part of the country, fiestas are usually celebrated with different activities spearheaded by the church and with banquets to which all are invited to feast. Every family will usually prepare large banquets for their respective visitors and those whoever happens to visit your house during these days.

The atmosphere during fiestas are so festive that a visitor would not think that the town of the family he/she is visiting is dire financial difficulties. It has already been ingrained in the culture of most Filipino families to always prepare for the feast no matter what. Some families even prepares for it at the beginning of the year or right after the celebration of the current feast.

In this contemporary times, fiestas are often celebrated with several competitions participated in usually by the resident of the place and sometimes, from people of neighboring places. There are dancing, carousels, carnivals, small-time gamblings and lots of food during this celebration. It is so fun to watch and observed since every town or city has its own distinct way of celebrating fiestas.

It is sad to note however that due to the proliferation of drugs and the use of alcohol of young people, there are always rumbles and riots or some sort of trouble during these kind of celebrations. However, if the persons in authority are active enough to make some moves to prevent these kind of troubles amongst the participants and visitors to fiesta celebrations, these festivities would be truly festive and worth the effort to attend to.

The church for sometime had intensified their campaign for a simple yet meaningful celebration of these festivities. They happen to observed that many people had set aside the real meaning of the religious celebration and focused on the entertainment and festivity for material satisfaction aspect.

It would be nice to see people prioritize going to church on Fiesta Day to participate in the celebration than focusing all their energies on their banquet preparation for visitors who don't even really give a care about the celebration, but just being there for the banquet.