The Devotion of PagSa-San Juan (Taong Putik)

As promised, I received a copy of Fr. William's article entitled THE DEVOTION OF "PAGSA-SANJUAN: Historical and Theological views. I would have wanted to paste the entire paper here but I assume he'll be posting it in his own blog. So I'll just copy and paste the historical portion here.

June 24 is observed as the feast day of Saint John the Baptist In Aliaga, Nueva Ecija, in Barangay Bibiclat, hundreds of devotees of the village's patron saint, John the Baptist, transform themselves into "SANJUAN" . It is an event, a religious experience for the parishioners.

Nobody knows exactly when the “DEVOTION OF PAG-SASANJUAN” started. One legend says the image of the patron saint which was brought to Bibiclat by early Ilocano settlers, helped in driving away poisonous snakes from the village. The name "Bibiclat" came from the Ilocano word "biclat" meaning snake. Another legend says that when Japanese soldiers during World War II were about to execute all the men in the village in retaliation for the death of 13 fellow soldiers, it rained so hard that the male villagers had to be herded into the church to seek shelter. After a while, the Japanese soldiers had a change of mind and set their captives free. The residents attributed this to a miracle of Saint John the Baptist, and vowed to pay homage to him on his feast day by wearing costumes patterned after his attire -- this time, using native materials.

Once a year before dawn, the devotees silently emerge from the darkness, covered head to toe in mud, dried vines and banana leaves. The roads are filled with the San Juan Bautista devotees, as they go house to house quietly begging for coins to buy candles.

Candles in hand, they meekly gather at the church where mass brings intent prayer and deep meditation. Devotees put mud on their faces and bodies to symbolize their humility when asking the Almighty for forgiveness for the sins they have committed their spirit longing for peace and their bodies seeking health, the air becomes eerily silent, save for the officiating priest's passages.

The celebration starts in the eve of June 24 with the devotees applying mud all over their bodies and darting the dried materials of their “costume”. At dawn they would begin to march to the Parish Church where a mass would be held, and along the way they would ask for coins from house to house to buy candles to be erected on the altar of their patron saint.

The parishioners also make the festival a time for thanking God for the bountiful harvest, and good health in the year that passed, and asking for the same in the year ahead.

SO there it is, like what he said, the celebration of San Juan Bautista's Feast in our town is not being done for a show. It is popularly known as Taong Putik but it has deeper religious meanings for the devotees and non-devotees but residents of this barangay/ town.

Taong Putik They're Not, They're Nagsa- San Juan

The pictures of the San Juan Bautista Celebration in Aliaga, Nueva Ecija last June 24 landed on the front page of most dailies. I saw the Philippine Daily Inquirer showing the parish priest, Fr. William blessing the San Juan devotees, popularly known (and soon, formerly known) as mga Taong Putik. That was undeniably a main point in Fr. William's sermon during the Holy Mass. The mass was celebrated on the grounds of the parish, with the facade as the altar or the Dambana. The people with mud on their bodies and faces and wearing banana leaves or vines are not taong Putik, much more, aliens (as what a caption in an internet website read) or scary beings. They are devotees, NAMAMANATA (from the word, PANATA) to San Juan Bautista. Thus, they are nagsa San-Juan, or Sang Juan (as pronunced by the local folks).

I am still waiting for the copy of the reverend Father's research on the history of this celebration to write a full blog on this one of kind San Juan event. It is different from other San Juan feast because it is not marked by people washing each other down with water. In the meantime, watch my picasaweb slideshow:

Picasaweb Flowershow Volume 1

We're in a weather transition. Summer is bidding us farewell and it has started raining hard during afternoons. Welcome rainy days.

As a fitting tribute to summer and the colorful flowers that flourished under the sun, I am showing here a slideshow from my picasaweb album. It's a flowershow, volume 1.

No Wonder They Call the Pekpek, Flower

After a very, very long wait, the red rose plant in my mama's backyard bloomed anew. This rose once upon a time sprouted but decided to abort itself. It dried up not seeing the day it should have blossomed into a beautiful red, velvety rose.

When I saw that it has regained the courage come out as a bud, I took the time to take photos of its every phase. My daughter learned the life cycles of the frog, the chicken and mosquito in pre-school. I decided it's time to show her that even plants, and flowers, have their life cycle too.


I took my konica minolta diMAGE Z20 and take a shot everytime I saw a different phase in the blossoming of this red rose. If you'll notice, some of its images have beads of rainwater and some do not. It was a good thing the cycle of rain and sunshine also came during the course of my photodocumenting this rose's life.


When it has fully-bloomed, I noticed that there were some white scars on its petals. I thought, maybe that was why it has not bloomed during its first bud, it was not as perfect as it was expected. Kawawa naman sya.

Looking at its photos, I now understood why the rose is often used as a symbol for femininity. It does resemble the female genitalia. I hope I am not being bastos but it is one way of understanding why our lolas, mothers and teachers call the pekpek as flowers. Maybe it was not about being prude, of not wanting to utter the word, puke or pekpek. It must be the literariness of it all or their strong connection to nature. On one hand, calling the puke, flower evokes beauty and fragrance. Calling puke as puke, evokes... puke.

(I guess I have to do some bird-watching to understand why older people call titi as birds.)


I am not discriminating but I know mommies will understand better what I am trying to do, comparing the images of the rose to the vagina. Especially the photo showing the scars in the petals? Doesn't that remind us of the day we give birth to our child, normal delivery way? Battle-scarred.

So now when you look at sanitary napkins and feminine wash and notice an image of a flower, you'll know, it's not just the flower, it's the other flower.

Oh, well. The things we think of when we stop and smell the roses. In my case, when I stop and take pictures of roses.

Happy smelling.

Flores De Maria 2007

Flores De Maria or Santacruzan is an annual summer event that Pinoys look forward in the month of May. When I was kid, I guess I was pretty enough to merit a place as one of the angels holding a cartolina cut-out of one of the letters of AVE MARIA. In my freshman (or was it senior) year in high school, I became a Reyna Delas Flores of our barangay in Dagupan City but since I had my kuyang Jojo as my escort, the experience was not as exciting as I hoped it would be. You know, the kind of excitement a teen-ager gets when she has her crush as her escort? Yeah, I know you'd get it. Besides, they misspelled my name as Asmilla instead of Amiella. That's another reason for me not to remember it with fondness. Who would be happy being called "Reyna Asmilla"? Sounds like an asthmatic queen doesn't it? A name so unfit for one who carries the title of the Queen of Flowers.



Last May, by virtue of a pretty face and a prominent lineage, my eldest daughter, Trinity, was chosen as, what else... one of the angels of the AVE MARIA. She carried a a glittering styrofoam painted with a blue letter A.

I was not at home days before the Flores because I was busy with a Southeast Asian training. Believe me, those days were a Saturday and Sunday and we were working overtime in the office. Very NGOish. But I was not as guilty as hell. Thanks to technology and a bunch of relatives, all's well that ended well. A week before, when I realized that my schedule would not fit in the preparations for the Flores, I asked my cousin, whose son was president of the parish youth, to just exclude Trinity because I won't be there to prepare for her.

“Walang problema", ate Min said, "Ako ang mag-aasikaso kung di mo maaikaso. Ako na mag-aayos, maisama lang natin."

"E pano yung damit, wala pa syang damit.", I added.

“E di manghiram tayo, kadaming kamag-anak dyan", she replied.

And that's what I love about being in the province: "Walang problema." "Kadaming kamag-anak."

And kamag-anak it was who provided for Trinity's hair and make-up and gown. Her wings was another story involving her own Tati (dad), Tati Zos. While I was busy burning the CDs to be distributed to our training participants, me and the hubby were busy texting each other:

"Mron daw pak2 na mabbli jan. Bili ka na lang."
"Sn d2?"

I got impatient with the reply and decided to call him only to find out that he decided to create the wings himself. Before I got home, he texted that the wings are finished with the able assistance of our artistic nieces, Mides and Browie.

And there it was, the masterpiece. Angel wings made of carton, Elmer's glue and cottonballs. Trinity was so excited about the whole thing that she kept on asking me if she can try on the gown and wings hours before the procession.

The Procession

Here in our town in Nueva Ecija, the procession is no longer called Santacruzan but Flores De Maria. The only marked difference I see is only with the names of the sagalas. I believe flowers are still offered to the Nuestra Senora Delas Saleras (our patron saint) but the names of the sagalas were no longer the names of the female characters from the bible (and elsewhere). The sagalas in a Flores De Maria carry the different names of the Blessed Virgin, i.e Tinig ng Panginoon, Ina ng Laging Saklolo. The Reyna Elena is Rosa Mistica and The Reyna Delas Flores is The Nuestra Senora Delas Saleras. Problem is, most of the ladies didn't seem to understand what they were representing. Most of them wore beautiful growns that were either off-shouldered or bare-backed. Someone wore a gown from which her boobs were waiting to pop out. Now, can you imagine the Blessed Mother or the women saints to be strutting around in their time, dressed in bare-backed gowns? Mary Magdalene wore long sleeved clothes but she was still labeled a whore. Someone ought to explain to these ladies (and their parents and gaydressers) what the Flores De Maria is all about. Or better yet, let's change the name and simply call it Flores de Mayo, literally, flowers of May. It's gives room for flamboyant creativity.

On the change of name, Flores de Maria, someone said, was a more appropriate tribute to the Blessed Virgin Mary rather than Santacruzan which was actually a pagan rite. But as I see it, it makes no difference. The Catholic religion is strongly based on pagan rituals anyway. My history professors in UP called it folk Christianity, a mixture of pagan beliefs and Catholic church teachings. My favorite example is the similarity in the way we make the sign of the cross when we pass by a Catholic church and saying "Makikiraan po" when we pass by an anthill believed to be the home of the nuno sa punso. Another great example occurred on that same Flores De Maria night. It was raining so hard in the afternoon before the procession that the women of the churh organizations offered eggs to the Nuestra to ask for clear clouds. They also added some sugar because of reasons that escaped me. I thought, "Ba't hindi na lang kaya leche flan and ibinigay?" Well, the rain stopped and the moon came out from behind the dark clouds. If it was because of the eggs and sugar or because of a scientific turn of events, I no longer cared. The point was, the rain stopped and my daughter's gown and make-up were not in vain. Try reading the Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown discusses more examples to this folk Christianity thought.

All’s Well that Ends Well


I love watching religious processions, Santacruzan/Flore De Mayo/Flores De Maria included. I love to look at the beautiful arcos, sagalas and gowns especially if I know somebody who is one of the Reynas. But I prefer Santacruzan to Flores De Maria because I think it is one of the rare occassion where tributes to the female characters of the bible are given. It shows that women represents more than the womb and a reverent beauty. She can be an Abogada, a warrior, symbol of the virtues, symbol of the innocents, etc. etc. Click on the second Santacruzan link to find out the meaning of each Reyna.

In the end, I was satisfied with my daughter joining the Flores de Maria. It was a test and she passed, albeit not with flying colors (she refused to join the group picture-taking in the church. Crying her eyes off saying she was very tired to join the other sagalas.) It was test of endurance and personality and her effort to finish walking the main roads of I think four barangays without throwing tantrums was very commendable.