The Ayala Malls Market! Market! Activity Center was transformed into a world of glitz, glamour, and pure fun as the unforgettable Flores De Mayo: Queens & Blooms Festival took center
To celebrate Flores de Mayo, I had flower-shaped puto and kutsinta paired with delicious palabok. You see, palabok is a noodle dish that I have a penchant for. I can’t
I must have always believed in magic. When I was 10 or so years old, I liked to imitate the Flores de Mayo that I saw during our summer vacations in Pagsanjan. Daily, children offered fresh flowers, usually bunched together calachuchi, adelfa, bachelor’s buttons, even cadena de amor, on the altar. That was church-conducted Flores.
The heritage town of Pila, Laguna, is rich in history, having survived wars, revolutions and catastrophic floods which forced the residents to transfer to its present location near the capital town of Santa Cruz.
The success of a Flores de Mayo rests on three factors: the sagalas, designers’ gowns and the event coordination. The Congregacion del Santisimo Nombre de Niño Jesus has never failed to give us all these. On its 34th year, it celebrated the best of Filipino beauty, artistry and culture by giving tribute to the Dean of Filipino Fashion, Ben Farrales.
Amelia “Meng” Canlas, who has produced and directed the popular TV program “Seven Last Words” on Channel 13 for the past 26 years, has married Toronto-based Emmanuel “Noli” Vasquez on April 17 at Our Mount Carmel Parish on Broadway Street in New Manila, Quezon City. No less than Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle performed the beautiful nuptial rites.
Everywhere we went, in Tagbilaran, Dauis, Loay and Loboc in Bohol, we would espy families, neighbors and communities taking part in the Flores de Mayo. At the Loboc Church on a Saturday afternoon, we saw schoolchildren all dressed in white, singing Marian hymns.
The president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines CBCP) urged the faithful on Tuesday, not to turn this month’s Flores de Mayo festivities into mere pageants of beautiful women and “strongly discouraged” the “third sex” from participating in the processions.
It’s May, it’s May, the lusty month of May. Some sing “the merry month of May.” Whatever, it is the month of flowers and fiestas in the Philippines.
A prewar print of the Blessed Virgin in full regalia wearing her gold crown and in ceremonial robes, flanked by double columns with elaborately embroidered drapery and a cartouche of Philippine flora like the rosal, dahlia, gumamela and sampaguita framing her venerable image, epitomizes the passion many Filipinos have for Mary.
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