This is how Kagay-anons (term for Cagayan de Oro people) celebrate a feast!
The 28th of July is a date to remember for us, natives of Cagayan de Oro. This is a time for celebration as the whole city pays tribute to the feast of its Patron saint, Saint Augustine. Whenever the month of August begins, everyone also begins to prepare for the said event. You could see colourful bunting flags tied on every street and tarpaulins can be seen everywhere, promoting the different activities that the local government has prepared for everybody. Big establishments, such as Malls, Boutiques and Department stores usually offer a great deal to the locals and tourists by offering 20%-70% off on all their items!! And that offer is good for the whole month! Isn’t that great?! Haha!!
This year’s highlight is the giant float parade where 9 competing floats paraded around the city. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see the floats “live” because I woke up a bit late and I know I won’t be able to catch up since our house is a bit far from the city. It was quite disappointing on my part, actually. However, I believe I was still lucky that day, because I was able to see the floats on TV via live telecast. One of the local television networks made that possible. And that shooed my sadness away!
One of the activities that I was able to witness was their Street Dancing Competition, where the contingents are very pleasing to the eye as they danced their hearts out in the streets, wearing colourful costumes and huge head dress, under the biting heat of the sun! I took some pictures of them and as you could see, a lot of the locals who watched the street dancing were also in the pictures. It only goes to show that we appreciate this kind of thing. Even though it causes us to be sunburned and icky with sweat, we don’t mind because this is our celebration! And that is our way of getting involved in this once-in-a-year festival!
0 comments:
Post a Comment