Simbang Gabi

Photo taken at St. Joseph Cathedral, two Sundays ago.

I decided to post this photo because tomorrow is the start of simbang gabi. Simbang gabi is a series of nine dawn masses. This tradition starts on the 16th of December and ends on the 24th of the same month.

It's December 10. 15 days until christmas. Here's another photo of Parols (Christmas lantern) I posted in this blog. My first parol post is here. This parol store is beside the ukay-ukay shop in one side and the vacant lot in the other at Burgos Street. This photo also shows how straws can be made into pretty christmas lanterns. Let's not forget to recycle!

By the way, I forgot to post something last Sunday. Was too hyped up from anticipating-enjoying- talking about what happened that day. Congratulations to Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao for his well deserved victory over Oscar dela Hoya! I felt sad about Oscar dela Hoya's defeat but then again there is always a winner and a loser in every game (except draws). And I'd rather Pacquiao win than ODLH. hehehe This is an article that I enjoyed reading about the fight. The comments are quite as entertaining too!

All Saints' Day and All Soul's Day

Every November 1 and 2, Filipinos return to their hometown for a unique kind of family get together. We spend the days at the local cemetery to visit our deceased family members. To the uninitiated this means that we bring foods, flowers, lots of candles, and sometimes musical instruments to the burial place. I know picnics and cemetery doesn't normally don't go together but in our culture they do.

Yesterday we left for Barangay Libertad cemetery at 3 in the afternoon. We arrived at around 4. Traffic was relatively light compared to last year although the place is as crowded as ever. Kudos to the traffic enforcers for making our trip there stress-free.

Because we spend two days yearly at this place, a number of well-to-do has constructed structures to make their stay at the burial site as comfortable as possible. This is why my uncle called our cemetery as "subdivision of the dead." It is funny because it has truth in them, and sad too because the place looks too overcrowded with all the concrete buildings close together. Anyway, before I rained on anyone's parade you'll see why at the photo below.

Some of these buildings are bare with only benches for sitting, while others have the works: airconditioning, restrooms, appliances etc. In our case, our elders opted for a garden memorial to make it more easy on the eyes (less claustrophobic too).

Our family usually spends the first few minutes (or hours) talking and eating. When it gets darker, we pray. Then we talk some more, take photos, laugh.

We left at around 6, when the sun has set, and the night is more pronounced.

Sayaw Pera

"Sayaw Pera"

Literally translates as the "money dance." The bride and groom dances while the relatives and friends pin money on their clothes. The newlyweds get to keep the bills after the dance, of course.

Carabao. Riding the carabao can be done in Butuan. This photo was taken just alongside the bridge. CARAGA region, where Butuan is a part of, is an agricultural region. Which explains the rural feel of this photograph.

Sunday- At Church

Its Sunday. Time for the faithful to hear mass. This was taken surreptitiously at St. Joseph Cathedral at the end of the service. This has been a practice that's been done for a while now. At the end of the mass people, mostly children, surge towards the Priest to pay their respects by pressing the priest's knuckles against their foreheads.

To better understand this tradition you can check my previous blog about this.

Just in case you're wondering why this photo is blurry, its just my way of showing the madhouse that is the church every time it ends. Hehe

Tipasi, Rice and all the Grains

Some people take their siesta every afternoon. Some watch their favorite Mexican, Korean or local tele-serye (TV soaps) . And yet some people spend their time lovingly picking out the 'tipasi' , and other unprocessed by products (or is it the other way around?) of rice grains.

Its a meditative exercise, I imagine.

"...Oops, a stone, oh another un-milled grain ('tipasi'). That's the thirtieth piece in this minute alone."

My nanay used to do 'tahop'. Its where she uses a flat, semi concave basket (?) weaving ('nigo'), to remove the stones, un-milled grains and other impurities. You should see her make the dirt fly. I used to be all so know it all (still is, sometimes, actually- according to a certain cousin) and get the nigo from her and try to do what she does only to make half of the grains fly. The-should-and-the-shouldn't-fly-grains floating in the air. It was beautiful... disaster. Hehehe. One of my early brushes of guilt, I should imagine.

Urios Alumni Homecoming 2008

The picture above was of the golden jubilarians showing their stuff at Urios' Alumni Homecoming. If you're Butuanon May means a lot of things. One is the fiesta which will be on the 19th, and second is the said alumni homecoming.

Urios Alumni-- as a time for different batches of Urian graduates to mingle, get-together, catch up with each other's life. Nostalgia (and horror) in one. (I'm getting older Oh my God!)

I was a graduate of Urios High School so I was there. As a Butuanon blogger I should've gone to Agusan High's Alumni too. Sorry. I was out of commission that time. Was recuperating from my usual health problem. Anyhoo, these are the photos I took tonight.

Enjoy!

Happy Mother's Day!

To all mothers out there this bunch of roses is for you. Since I'm still as poor as a rat's behind this is all I can give you. A photo taken from the bucket of flowers at one of the flower shops at Butuan playground.

Just in case you're wondering, the flower shops across Urios high school is gone. They're now located near the entrance of Butuan City playground as I mentioned earlier.

Jeepney’s Torotot-- Random Photos #1

Watching the photos posted at another site inspired me enough to overcome my shyness in posting my pictures. It's not that their photos are so horrible compared to mine that I am confident mine would be better.

On the contrary I have finally accepted that it'll take a lot of time, practice and better equipments to make me a good photographer. So for the meantime I hoped to take interesting (I hope) photos to compensate with these deficiencies.

Lately, I found myself bored with my trees, branches and other nature pictures.

It's probably because my cousin gets all giddy whenever she sees these things.

"Ate Ly! Take that photo!" Bossy little brat that she is. (Says me, with a lot of affection).

Or because I find it extremely difficult to get good pictures of nature (without me in it ).

Right now, in order to serve up a slightly different take on the Philippines I browsed through my files and came up with these:

The girl pressing her forehead against the grandmotherly figure is doing what we call being "blessed" or kissing the hands of the elderly. It is how we pay our respect.

I was inside the calesa when I took this picture. You can see those metallic vehicles parked at the side of the streets. They're called jeepneys. It's one of the Philippine's major means of public transportation.

Have you seen "The Dukes of Hazzard" where Seann William Scott's character, Bo, kept on blowing General Lee's annoying musical horns? That annoying little noise maker was originally a part of a jeepney. That is until laws were put into action prohibiting its use in public. Too bad. No more pesky heckling, mooing and whatever sounds Filipino horn makers could come up with, in traffic.

And this last photo was something that I have always tried to capture until now. You know how my camera is.

Those huge things at both sides of the motorcycles are probably stocks of merchandise that that guy was transporting from one place another.

That is all for today.

It's sunny outside.

Time for me to go out and play.

Take care!