Accordingly, Fiestas are like capital poured into investment. The have to be celebrated grandly to ensure good life ahead. If one wishes for more harvest from feilds or sea, or more luck in the business or emplopyment, physical healing, more rain then one ought to dole out quality meals in a fiesta celebration. What will happen if we don't celebrate Fiestas?
The
Dia de Fiesta system was actually part of the religious pillar of Pax Hispanica, one modality that the Spanish Empire and the Roman Catholic Episcopacy, under the auspices of the Spanish Royal Crown and the religious friars, utilized to christianize the so called 'heathen' natives. Prior to the advent of Spanish colonization, the majority of Filipinos lived in rural villages (some ranging from 2 to 100 families), but after the advent of Spanish colonization, the establishment of the barangay, the barrio, the poblacion, the municipal and the cuidad helped to organize the people and allow the soft and easy flow of information, faster trade and the manifestation of civility, in the eyes of the European, was reached in prudent potentiality.
Even after the conquest of the Philippines and the erection of religious churches, the majority of the Filipinos still lived at some distance from the parish church.
This is where we see the
Fiesta being implemented to augment the evangelization of the Philippines. The fiesta system and the founding of sodalities, on the other hand, reached out to embrace the whole scattered population of the parish. Although the majority of Filipinos preferred to live near their rice fields, they could be lured periodically into the
cabecera village. The enticement was the fiesta. There were three fiestas of consequence to the Filipinos, namely Holy Week, Corpus Christi, and the feast in honor of the patron saint of locality. The parishioners flocked to the
cabecera villages for these occasions. Not only did the fiestas provide a splendid opportunity to indoctrinate the Filipinos by the performance of religious rituals, but they also afforded the participants a welcome holiday from the drudgery of toil. The religious processions, dances, music and theatrical presentations of the fiestas gave the Filipino a needed outlet for their natural gregariousness. Sacred and profane blended together.
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