Halloween Ephemeral Thoughts

Last year, in the height of the blackout induced by Typhoon Milenyo, I chanced upon a ghostly white apparition in the mirror. It commanded me to take its picture, which I dutifully did using my trusty Nokia 3200. What a vain ghost, I thought. The figure apparently read my mind, got angry and promptly disappeared.

It's not just the mirror that may appear scary in this unit of ours. The landlady has a fascination with antiques: tribal masks, Catholic ikons, a Hindu and a Buddhist statue. She displays them at the stairs leading to the unit. It's an effective scare tactic against bothersome children (and maybe the adults too, but it's more probable that they'd steal the figures). Inside, dark woodwork significantly subdues illumination (darkness is her preference, I think, because she's a widow). The overall impression created is that of the inside of a decades-old house, even though the entire housing complex is just over ten years old. My sister-in-law actually reports of a presence here.

Okay, it's ten in the evening, I'm all alone in this unit and I'm writing about how scary it is? I better change the topic before the vain ghost appears in the mirror again.

-oOo-

Just recently, I was playing with a ballpen equipped with a laser pointer and an LED flashlight. It dawned upon me that Harry Potter's lighted wand (lumos spell) may be probably implemented in the movies through an LED device (of course, in the movies, the luminosity would be further enhanced). If I could fashion such a toy wand, it just might sell this Halloween or perhaps during another typhoon-induced blackout, hmm.

-oOo-

I notice that I have this certain fascination with the "Shadow" Jungian Archetype. If I would dress up for a Halloween party, I'd be a vampire or Batman or some other similarly mysterious creature of the night. Indeed I am a creature of the night with my penchant of staying up late and waking up at noon.

By the way, speaking of archetypes, these are culture-based constructs used by the psychologist Carl Jung to interpret dreams. Jung believes that the persons, animals, things and other creatures and objects we see in our dreams reflect the current states of various parts of our personality. Thus if ever we see dark and mysterious characters like a vampire, Batman, the devil or even an "evil" version of ourselves we see the Shadow archetype, which embodies our dark or repressed side. Observe how this character appeared and acted in the dream. Was it dominant or weak, jubilant or unhappy? What did it say? More archetypes representing other part of our personality can be found in our dreams. (Google them!) Note how these archetypes interact with each other in the dream.

Ah, dream interpretation can be fun. I miss my Psychology class. I remember how the teacher could check our 100-item exam papers immediately after submitting, without even consulting an answer key. Applying my psychology knowledge, I figured he was using a mnemonic device. Sure enough, though vaguely, I saw patterns in the answers. In fairness, I needed to answer correctly a significant number of items, enough to get a decent grade, before I could see the patterns and ace the test. The teacher now uses an answer key, just in case another student like me pops up in his class.

-oOo-

Ever stumbled upon the blog of a dead person? I know of one: Julia in the Philippines. Remember her? Her death was actually in the news a few months ago. Note the title of her last entry. Leave her a comment (log-in required). Maybe she might reply from the great beyond.

Makes me think of what would happen to our blogs in the event of our death. Would we also receive loving parting comments? If there's a saying that one must live each day like it's one's final day on earth, then blogging each entry like it's the last you'll ever make just might clear up the trash in the blogging world.

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Traslacion Musings

Last month, I went back to Naga for the Peñafrancia Fiesta, its opening festivities, to be precise. The Peñafrancia Fiesta starts with the Traslacion, the procession where the miraculous images of Our Lady of Peñafrancia and the Divino Rostro (the image of the suffering Jesus on the Widow Veronica's cloth) are brought from the Basilica Minore where She is enshrined to the more accessible Naga Metropolitan Cathedral downtown. This practice started out back in the Spanish colonial past where walking is the main method of land transportation, the basilica no more than a nipa-roofed shrine located in the scarcely populated city outskirts, and the cathedral was located right in the place to be, at the heart of the city.

I'd prefer going to the Traslacion rather than the main event nine days later--the Fluvial Procession, where the Image is returned to the basilica via a river barge (called the Pagoda). Perhaps it's just my aversion to crowds. Actually, the number of people in the city does shoot up during Traslacion, but there's about twice more people during the Fluvial Procession. And speaking of large crowds, fiestas not only attract devotees, tourists and merchants (some aren't even selling Bicol merchandise, for crying out loud), but also shady characters who think of large crowds as both unwitting prey and convenient hiding place, just as what fellow blogger Sidney recently experienced (he too went to Naga last month, but for the Fluvial Procession).

It had been six years since I had last watched or participated in the Traslacion. I guess it's a Bicolano thing to have this itch to participate. It also helped that every school in Naga and its neighboring towns sends a delegation, so from elementary to high school I had been marching, rain or shine, in the Traslacion. My plan was to wiggle my way, by affiliation with my former teachers, into the delegation of my high school alma mater. I was thinking it would also be a good opportunity to brush up with the latest in the school and in the city, hitting two birds with one stone. So there I was walking at high noon towards the usual staging point of my high school, which was a quarter of the way down from the starting point of the procession. (They are still schoolchildren, so it would be enough for them to walk for about a kilometer while the grown-up devotees take on the full route, which is about a couple hundred of meters longer. Yeah, we're tough like that.) I was wearing only a T-shirt, but the heat was getting into me, which is not a good sign. Back then I wore two layers of formal "gala" uniform, but I took the heat in stride. I discovered that recently, the staging area was moved, which meant students now walked about 30 more meters for the procession, no biggie actually.

Finally, I saw the delegation of my high school, but was disappointed. I've been supportive of its recent major changes like a move to a new campus located at the city outskirts (I meant the new city outskirts, kilometers farther than the Basilica Minore) and, of course, co-education, but, as a school that prides itself as a Bicolano, Catholic and Jesuit institution, I hope they retain this small tradition during the fiesta. What I stumbled upon in the delegation was a sound mobile followed by the crucifix, school standards and candles held by the altar servers, followed by senior high school students and teachers then finally some students from the college. I didn't even find the old teachers whom I personally know. This was a token delegation, no different from any other school in the procession. I risk sounding like an old fogey, but during my time, the delegation came in full force, which made it unique among the other schools in the Traslacion. At front was not just the crucifix, candles and school standards but a platoon of altar servers. Then there was a brass band from college (although its recent absence was due to the fact that the school bands were now positioned at locations along the route rather than march with their respective schools). Following the band was a platoon of CAT officers, who will compete a week later in the annual Military Parade. After them were all high school students escorted by all their teachers. Among the students were members of the mysterious religious organization Days with the Lord holding up banners with Marian slogans.

Dejected, I walked away. A few blocks away though, I saw a new delegation that was, in some ways, "unique" and amusing enough to elicit raised eyebrows from me. At its heart, Naga is a conservative city, where values like modesty, apparent if not internalized, are still regarded highly. For instance, the uniforms in its schools are of the long skirt variety (as exemplified by the seifuku in the anime Maria-sama ga Miteru, which, incidentally, is set in a Catholic school for girls, see pic at left), and this fits well with the religious procession the students are participating. But times do change and Naga is not exempted. Recently, the city had welcomed an international school, Brentwood if I'm not mistaken, and they were also marching in the Traslacion. The thing is, international schools sport a uniform of more worldly standards (and the Brentwood uniform in particular uncannily resembles the seifuku of Ghost Hunt with its sailor bow, long sleeves, short skirts and knee-high socks, see pic at right). After the initial startled reaction, the first question that came to mind was why was this not present during our time (Why?!). Then I thought, quoting somebody, "that's hot"--literally speaking--but I guess like any other Bicol resident, the Brentwood students could cope with the scorching weather. As to the question whether there were anime-cute students worthy of their anime-like uniform, it's probable but I could not ascertain since the fiery sun was beating down upon me and I had to move on.

In the end, I had to content myself with merely watching the Traslacion by the roadside together with childhood friends, something which I last did more than a decade ago anyway. At first I noticed that clouds were gathering above the approximate location of the basilica. She has started her voyage, I thought to myself. Slowly, like the pace of the procession, the clouds crept towards our location downtown. I wouldn't be surprised if it brought rain along with it since water was more than welcome in the midst of the voyadores, the tumultuous sea of men bearing the Image of Our Lady (think rush-hour MRT, only with a lot more pushing and shoving and drunkenness and body odor). Either way, there were volunteer fire trucks and civic-minded homeowners along the route willing to hose some relief onto the men. A similar sign of weather cooperating with the festivities happens during the Fluvial Procession where rains would raise the water level in the Naga River so that the barge could float along more smoothly, a feat replicated, just in case, using flood control structures.

The image of the Divino Rostro passed by, and, a couple of hours later, that of Our Lady. Together with the waved handkerchiefs and falling confetti, were raised cameras and cellphones. In the age of 3G and blogs, this centuries-old tradition continues among the Bicolanos will continue to do so for ages to come.

Traslacion photo stolen from Chy.

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Fantasia (Part 7)

It's been quite a while. It might help if you brush up first on the previous parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Heavy rains and strong winds drenched and battered the forest right outside the Citadel of Aqueaon. It was supposed to be a mere couple of hours after noon, but the surroundings were as dark as the final moments of dusk. Occasional lightning flashes revealed figures running around beneath the trees. It was the final competition of the tournament, and the champions of the academies that survived the eliminations were racing against each other in looking for clues to find the Trophy of EveAlone.

Even in good weather, the search for clues was a daunting task. Enchanted artifacts scattered across the forest contained the clues, but before these clues could be revealed, the champions must first surpass the artifact's challenge.

"There's the next artifact!" Romulus pointed to something shiny jutting out of a tree branch. Gorgon, another champion of the Pillars, looked around to see if anybody was following them. So far, they were leading the race. The three, including Daniel, were on a lucky roll considering that they have surpassed the other challenges by mere guesswork. They approached the new artifact and were given a challenge, the second to the last.

"It's a Codix puzzle." Daniel instantly recognized the scribbling. Answering this particular puzzle required advanced skill that wasn't taught yet to the rest of his fellow wards back at the Pillars.

At the Citadel, the rest of the Knights and their masters were monitoring the race through a Heraldic Mirror. Wilbur, their master of Codix, also worked on the challenge. The Knights were amazed at how Daniel solved the puzzle as fast as the master did. They cheered as their champions raced to the last challenge. They were clearly on the way to victory.

While the activities at the Citadel went on, the Pillars had decided as a precaution to forego with theirs, including the Farewell Dance later that night. However, plucky youths that the Knights and their guests were, they decided to explore the City of Ceres instead. The weather was still not that adverse, they would exclaim as if taunting the storm.

All the guests of Fourth Group R had decided to shop for local wares at the bazaar and try the delicacies at the eateries. Of course, where there was Helen and Angela, Mervin and Dominic tagged along. Dominic was amused at how Mervin possessed a servile demeanor around Helen. He, on the other hand, was unable to establish his existence to Angela, as there beside her was Harvey, imperious as always. Later, they all decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at the house of Red, a well-off member of Fourth Group R. Red was well off enough to live near the Pillars, in this spacious residence, away from his parents.

Dominic had finally found the chance to get close to Angela when Harvey decided to go home. Yet how shall he proceed? Melodies of popular songs started filling the air. Crag, the musician of Fourth Group R, decided to give in to the group's prodding for some entertainment. They gathered around Crag. Some guys can be lucky to be blessed with talent, Dominic thought. He did notice though that Angela was having a little difficulty in singing along with the rest. Quickly he searched for a particular scroll in his bag, and rolled it down to the lyrics of the ballad being sung. He sat beside Angela and showed her the scroll, "here, this might help." He was rewarded a smile for the gesture. He smiled back at her. He also smiled to congratulate himself for this small victory.

Singing along with Angela was already heavenly for Dominic, but he would have wanted to go beyond that. If only he had more time with her. Ah, but the head acolyte had found favor in heaven, and his desire for more time was duly answered later that afternoon: the weather worsened around Ceres and the group decided to just spend the night together in Red's house.

Meanwhile, the Knights were having a grand time at the Citadel. Food was overflowing and lively music drowned out the storm outside. Actually, they were unable to win the minor contests, but what was important was that they lorded it over the main event. Amidst the celebration, however, Daniel yearned to rush home. He glanced at the trophy the Knights have been proudly displaying. Worthless, he thought. Even though it was not wholly for his own benefit, he had been dutiful to his task. His own quest, however, was at Ceres.

One of the Masters of the Pillars had noticed Daniel's impatience and understood. "I suppose we all have had our fill, let's go home before the weather gets worse," she declared in a kind voice. A Light Ace vessel was waiting for them by the raging river. Though a small type of boat, its sturdy sails proved efficient in harnessing the power of the stormy winds. Thusly, with just an hour of traveling, they found themselves approaching the last town before Ceres.

Daniel would have wanted the vessel to sail faster than that, but fate again intervened. Debris was blocking parts of the river and boats were having a hard time navigating through them. The townsmen had started clearing operations. In the meantime, Daniel was reduced to impatiently walking to and fro in the bridge of the vessel, struggling to cope with the new misfortune that struck him.

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