Naga City’s Flores de Mayo at Penafrancia de Mayo

Naga City’s Flores de Mayo

Horrible Sounding 'Sta. Cruzan' Characters
at Penafrancia de Mayo

We were dining at Yellow Cab

in Magsaysay Avenue on a Saturday Night

after attending an anticipated mass,

 

-when there was a sudden commotion in the street.

We later found out that there was a Flores de Mayo

passing by as a part of the Penafrancia de Mayo festivities.

 

Flores de Mayo is a colorful Filipino tradition

held in may cities and towns during the month of May,

 

Depicting the search and finding of the Holy Cross

by Queen Helena, mother of Constantine the great.

 

She is called the Reyna Elena by the Filipinos

and appears at the tail end of the procession.

 

  
In between were various queens and princesses

representing whatever the organizers may think of

according to their whims and caprices.

It used to be an honor for young ladies

to get invited to join
 the Flores de Mayo procession, 

I had an older sister who had been asked
to become a hilarious sounding Reyna Banderada 
when we were kids and she paraded wearing a gown 
bearing the colors of the Philippine flag-
and she is still getting nightmares until now
for that horrible experience despite the fact 
that she did not spend anything then and the gown
was rented for her by the Hermana Mayor.




…but lately, choosing the Flores de Mayo queens

are being done by bidding and whoever gets to

pay the most cash to the organizers-

gets to be the Reyna Elena…

… the lowest bidder gets to become

the weird sounding Reyna Templaza-

…or the uncanny title of

Reyna Fortaleza…

-or even the bizarre sounding

Reyna Prudencia.

I wonder why these young ladies wound want 

to be called by these outlandish sounding titles 

aside from their pretty real names.

It’s funny that some of the Flores de Mayo

partcipants were somewhat acting unqueenly

like texting on their phones or even

talking with the people around them.

 

In Naga City, the end of the procession

comes the most beautiful Queen of them all-

….the Lady of Penafrancia.

I wonder why she should still be paraded

with strange characters that ruin the solemnity

of the otherwise beautiful May procession.

-o-
NB: This post is a satirical social commentary so
I blotted out the names and faces of the
'sagala' participants as they are not one way or another
being critized by the author. They just happened
to be participants during the event.
-o-

You may also want to read a related post here:

The Naga City’s Grand Holy Friday Procession

Mary Magdalene, the Supermodel

Virgin Mary, the Victorian Countess 

(Bicol Cuaresma Series 5)