The Voyage

The world is not flat! This discovery of the Spain’s expedition commanded by the Portuguese navigator Hernando de Magallanes or Ferdinand Magellan, that set the record as the fist expedition to circumnavigate and confirm that the world is round is the same expedition that brought the image of Sto. Nino and the Catholic faith to the Philippine islands. On September 1519, a fleet of galleons under the flag of Spain set sailed in search for the Spice Islands. Instead they landed in a group of islands in the central part of the Philippines and in Limasawa island where Magellan declared possession of the (part of the Maharlika Kingdom of Asia) archipelago and named it after King Philip of Spain.

The Gift of Faith

Magellan's Cross in Cebu City

Without spices and in search of needed supplies, they continued their journey to the village of Zubu, now the City of Cebu, planted a mission Cross, befriended and converted into the Catholic faith the local chieftain Raja Humabon and his wife Hara Juana and the members of their tribe. As a gift on their baptism, Magellan gave the image of the Holy Infant Jesus, the Sto. Nino. A Sandugo, a blood compact was made between the two leaders and Magellan promise to fight with them against the neighboring tribe of the island of Matan, now Mactan. Magellan was killed in the battle of Mactan and the remnants of his forces returned to Spain using a different route, thus making the historic first voyage around the world.

The Rediscovery

It was 44 years later that the new group of Spanish explorers led by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and an Augustinian priest, Fr. Andres Urdaneta, a cosmographer from the Augustinian monastery in Mexico arrived in Cebu and find out that the new chieftain, Raja Tupaz was unfriendly to the newcomers. Skirmishes between the two groups left the village of Cebu in ruins. When a party was dispatched to check the village, a soldier, his name, Juan Camus found the image of the Child Jesus in one of the burning huts, the same image given to the former village chieftain’s wife, Juana 44 years earlier. The natives went back to their pagan ways and may have kept the image as an anito, or one of the native gods, as it was found with floral offerings.

The Prayer

Legazpi was said to have included this event in his report, “Relation of Voyage to the Philippine Islands”, to the king of Spain:

“Your Excellency should know that on that day when we entered this village (Cebu City), one of the soldiers went into a large and well-built house of an indio where he found an image of the Child Jesus (whose most holy name I pray may be universally worshipped). This was kept in its cradle, all gilded, just as if it were brought from Spain: and only the little cross, which is generally placed upon the globe in his hands, was lacking. The image was well kept in that house, and many flowers were found before it, and no one knows for what object or purpose. The soldier bowed down before it with all reverence and wonder, and brought the image to the place where the other soldiers were. I pray to the Holy Name of his image, which we found here, to help us and to grant us victory, in order that these lost people who are ignorant of the precious and rich treasure, which was in their possession, may come to knowledge of Him.”

The Answer

Since then, devotion to the Santo Niño has grown and has taken root in Filipinos’ popular piety, particularly in the Visayas, the central part of the Philippines group of islands. Pilgrims from different parts of the country make their yearly journey to the church, the Basilica Menore del Santo Nino or the Minor Basilica of the Santo Nino, in Cebu, to take part in the procession and festival. Different parts of the Philippines called this celebration differently: in Cebu, they call it Sinulog, Ati-Atihan in Kalibo, Aklan and in Tondo, Manila, Dinagyang in Iloilo and Binirayan in the province of Antique, to name a few. But all of them, all of these festivals, are centered on one and only purpose: the devotion to the Holy Infant Jesus, the Sto. Nino and His role in all of the Philippines’ embrace of the Catholic faith.

The Celebration

Iloilo Province celebrate the Feast of Santo Niño with a religious-cultural event called The Dinagyang Festival every fourth weekend of January after Cebu’s Sinulog and Kalibo’s Ati-atihan. Here are some snapshots of the event courtesy of RRGenciana Photography, Iloilo City.

Article sources: http://www.santoninogodevotion.org/, http://en.wikipedia.org, http://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com

Pictures courtesy of RRGenciana Photography, Iloilo City

Help Red Cross help others! Donate Blood!

News headlines about Degue Fever in Iloilo, Negros and around the country is alarming. These are from ABS-CBN.com:

• Dengue cases fill up gov’t hospitals
• Bacolod City ‘under imminent danger’ due to dengue
• Iloilo province under state of calamity over dengue outbreak
• DOH: Dengue cases could reach 80,000

Why donate blood? Why now?

The need of blood is constant, and in an advent of a disaster, urgent! The outbreak of Dengue, which in most, if not all severe cases require transfusion of platelet, a component of blood, pushed the need of blood beyond the limit of our local Red Cross Chapter.  Donating blood and donating it now means replenishing the blood used  by hundreds of patients, most of them Dengue Fever victims. Only through the immediate availability of these blood that lives are saved. Thus, donating blood, something that you can spare irregardless of your financial standing, means saving others, or maybe, God forbids, your own life.

What benefits you will have in donating blood to the Red Cross?

• It’s something you can spare – most people have blood to spare… yet, there is still not enough to go around
• You will help ensure blood is on the shelf when needed – most people don’t think they’ll ever need blood, but many do
• It feels great to donate!
• You can save lives – in fact, you may help as many as three people with just one donation.

What happens to donated blood?

• Donor is registered and blood is collected
• Blood is processed, spun in centrifuges to separate the transfusable components – red cells, platelets, and plasma
• Tests are performed on each unit of donated blood – to establish the blood type and test for infectious diseases
• When test results are received, units suitable for transfusion are labeled and stored
  • Red Cells are stored in refrigerators at 6ºC for up to 42 days
  • Platelets are stored at room temperature in agitators for up to five days
  • Plasma and cryo are frozen and stored in freezers for up to one year
• Blood is available to patients and hospitals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

It is important to understand that donated blood is collected, tested, processed and stored in a special bags and refrigerators and freezers. The amount you paid when you get these blood packs from the Red Cross blood bank cover these expenses. You didn’t pay for the blood because the blood is NOT for sale.

The Philippine National Red Cross is a non-government and not-for-profit organization. The success of its programs depend on people like you! Let us help Red Cross help others!

 Sources: article- American Red Cross, logo- blog.officelinks.com/, web.mit.edu/blood-drive/www/

Read more on Dengue and Traveling to Iloilo

My pictures taken during the filming of the Transformers 3 movie in downtown Chicago last July, 2010. Its nice to witness the controlled chaos in a 3-block area of Wacker Drive in Chicago during the filming. We saw multiple choppers from Chicago Police (the blue ones) and different media outlets, multiple first responder vehicles from police squad cars, SWAT vans, ambulances,  fire trucks etc. The center of attraction is the wreckage, turned upside down CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) bus. Support crew and personnel are everywhere as well as signs used for filming and for nosy people like us. Watch out for these scenes during the movie which is scheduled for release on July 1, 2011. The last picture is a glimpse of Lake Michigan from the our hotel room.

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Flores de Mayo and Santacruzan are two of the most colorful religious-cultural Filipino festivals celebrated every month of May all over the Philippines.

Flores de Mayo

Flores de Mayo means flowers of May. It is a month-long flower Festival celebrated in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is the time of the year where kids, while enjoying their 3-month long summer break from schools, are given a chance to learn Catechesis and develop their love of the Blessed Virgin Mary by daily devotions, prayers and floral offerings.

Origin

The Norther Illinois University, in one of their web publications about Southeast Asia (www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Cynthia/festivals) cited two reasons for the origin of this devotion. It may have started on the mid-1800s when the Immaculate Conception was solemnly defined as a dogma by Pope Pius IX in his constitution Ineffabilis Deuson 8 December 1854. And after the publication in 1867 of Mariano Sevilla’s translation of the devotional Flores de Maria or Mariquit na Bulaclac na sa Pagninilaynilay sa Buong Buan nang Mayo ay Inihahandog nang manga Devoto cay Maria Santisima (The Flowers of Mary or the Beautiful Flowers that in the Meditations During the Whole Month of May are Offered by Devotees to Mary the Holiest).

Santacruzan

The Santarcruzan is the Filipino version of the principal feast of the True Cross. This is the celebration depicting the search of the Holy Cross by Emperor Constatine’s mother, Queen Helena. www.seasite.niu.edu described the Santacruzan as a “religious-historical beauty pageant held in many cities, towns and even small villages throughout the Philippines during the month of May. One of the most colorful May-time festivals in the Philippines which commemorates the search of the Holy Cross by Queen Helena (Reina Elena) and her son, the newly converted emperor Constantine. After the Holy Cross was found in Jerusalem and brought back to Rome, there was a joyful celebration for thanksgiving”

“Nine days of prayer (a novena) in honor of the Holy Cross precedes the Flores de Mayo or Santacruzan. This festival was introduced by the Spaniards in the Philippines and has since become part of Filipino traditions identified with youth, love and romance.”

Origin

The Feast of the Cross like so many other liturgical feasts, had its origin at Jerusalem, and is connected with the commemoration of the Finding of the Cross and the building, by Constantine, of churches upon the sites of the Holy Sepulchre and Calvary. In 335 the dedication of these churches was celebrated with great solemnity by the bishops who had assisted at the Council of Tyre, and a great number of other bishops. This dedication took place on the 13th and 14th of September. This feast of the dedication, which was known by the name of the Encnia, was most solemn; it was on an equal footing with those of the Epiphany and Easter. (www.newadvent.org)

Why, then, the Filipinos observe the Santacruzan in May and the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in September? There may be no accurate answer to this question. But one of the most logical may be found in Catholic Encyclopedia’s Archaeology of the Cross and Crucifix: “Constantine’s vision of the Cross, and perhaps another apparition which took place in Jerusalem in 346, would seem to have been commemorated in this same feast. But its chief glory is its connection with the restoration of the True Cross to the Church of Jerusalem, after it had been carried away by the Persianking, Chosroes (Khusrau) II, the conqueror of Phocas, when he captured and sacked the Holy City. This Chosroes was afterwards vanquished by the Emperor Heraclius II and in 628 was assassinated by his own son Siroes(Shirva), who restored the Cross to Heraclius. It was then carried in triumph to Constantinople and thence, in the Spring of the year 629, to Jerusalem.”

This could had been the springtime in Constantinople since Jerusalem has only summer and winter seasons. And the springtime in Constantinople (presently Turkey) is from April to June. The Philippine Santacruzan may had been a celebration of the restoration of the True Cross to the Church of Jerusalem.

Veneration of the Holy Cross

The Cross to which Christ had been nailed, and on which He had died, became for Christians, quite naturally and logically, the object of a special respect and worship. St. Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 1:17: “For Christ sent me not to baptize; but to preach the gospel: not in wisdom of speech, lest the cross of Christshould be made void”; in Galatians 2:19: “With Christ I am nailed to the cross“; in Ephesians 2:16: Christ . . . . “might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross“; in Philippians 3:18: “For many walk . . . enemies of the cross of Christ“; in Colossians 2:14: “Blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he hath taken the same out of the way, fastening it to the cross“; and in Galatians 6:14: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world”.

It seems clear, therefore, that for St. Paul the Cross of Christ was not only a precious remembrance of Christ’s sufferings and death, but also a symbol closely associated with His sacrifice and the mystery of the Passion. It was, moreover, natural that it should be venerated and become an object of a cult with the Christians who had been saved by it.(www.newadvent.org)

Article sources: filipino.com.au, seasite.niu.edu, newadvent.org . Photo source: duszmtorres