Yesterday was the feast day of Sta. Martha, my hometown’s sub-patron saint (?), since we are still called San Roque Parish. But I heard that yesterday’s celebration marked the so called changing of parish name to officially make Sta. Martha the patron saint of the town.
It is the first town fiesta since my present employment that I’ve actually stayed in town, since we do have work on Sundays and the fiesta always falls on a Sunday. This year, I simply decided to stay at home and be with my relatives and friends on this day. Seven years of absence from a family gathering is simply too long a time, so I asked my best friend and my driver to drink with us yesterday.
The previous years, we’d have to wake up early and prepare so that we can inch our way out of town before the procession starts in the morning, and made sure that we stayed out late so that the roads would have been cleared by the time we got back to town.
The day started with a late lunch at my “Ale’s” (the one person who acted as my second mother and later my mother since nanay's death in 1994) house with my favorites “calderetang itik” and “luto sa pinyang manok”. The drinking was the same simple gathering at the “dirty” kitchen area as the kids played. My son of course was the most active of the lot and it reminded me of the opposite of myself when I was his age. I was shy, I was fearful of everything and I was frail.
I guess maybe my driver having only been with me for a little over a month, was quite amazed listening to stories my cousins were telling about me in my early years and how quite unthinkable that I have become what I am today. I was admittedly quite elated and embarrassed at the same time…
I am starting to miss my town… I haven’t been “here” for the longest time as I have “lived” somewhere else making a career and a life for myself.
included in the book of Regalado "Ricky" T. Jose, "SIMBAHAN", (1991) p. 16 The devotees sways the pandango, a dance of devotion to Sta Marta during her festivities in July 1969 in Barrio Aguho, Pateros, Rizal ( photo collection of the Ayala Museum)
the 2008 Town Fiesta
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