May Nostalgia (Part 2)

Oh great, an entry that's about topics from the previous month was only finished now. Anyway, hope the delay would not hinder your enjoyment. Part 1 is here.

Santacruzan and Flores de Mayo

Most people equate Santacruzan with the Reyna Elena, but at least for us (the community elders to be exact), it is mostly about the novena on the Holy Cross itself. While the elders are the ones who lead the prayers, provide guidance and ensure the attendees' best behavior, it is an ad-hoc youth committee that took care of the organizing of activities and soliciting of funds. As for the children, they are there to have fun while avoiding the scolding. Our Santacruzan being focused on the prayer and festivities sounds more boring than those which had the lovely ladies, but read on and discover that our experience ironically did have its share of the sexy (more naughty and scandalous, I dare say).

My first experience with Santacruzan was being given snack tokens while peering from the house to check out the flimsy-built chaplet filled with people at night. I was too young to join then, but for the children a few years older than I was, they were unable to grasp the concept of "blessing" that one would receive for participating, so they were given material blessing in the form of night snacks after the novena. At first these were simple tokens like sandwiches, chips, fruits and kakanin (rice-based gelatinous snacks). There may also be champorado (choco rice porridge), arroz caldo and inulog-ulog (sticky bite-sized balls made from ginger). Drinks consisted of fruit juices or chocolate. Kids would line up with their bowls and cups. For stricter sanitary reasons, I would prefer the packed ones that I could store and consume the next day. Later on, ice cream was included in the giveaways; that was a luxurious treat already. I wonder what sophisticated confections they would serve nowadays.

By the time I was ten, I would join the prayers. Unlike the other children, I had no problem with the long, repetitive and monotonous utterances since we had longer evening family prayers. In fact, I considered the Santacruzan a more enjoyable alternative. For me who had a curfew by about six and seven in the evening, there was the novelty of being with my playmates at night and participating in those nighttime activities I was usually deprived of. (Usually, these are just the same games we played at daytime, just that darkness could give different playing conditions as well as a different mood: Hide-and-Seek, Tag and, later on, Truth or Consequence. There might be others, but too bad I have forgotten.) The last part of the novena was sung, and this would liven up the children. The singing would indicate that the giveaways would be a few minutes away. We also got a kick with one song that had Spanish lyrics and a weird melody.

The last day of the novena was the fun-filled day for the kids. Events would start early in the morning with the blaring of the mobile sound system. (Actually the fun would start the night before with the preparations, which usually was the hanging of banderitas, while a karaoke machine provides the music.) As soon as the sound system is up and running, parlor and folk games would commence. There would be statue and paper dances¹, the piñata, palo sebo, lemon race², water relay, bring me, basagan ng palayok³, musical chairs⁴, eating and drinking contests, pahabaan ng gamit⁵ and the rough Coconut Football.⁶ Developments in the TV variety shows gave us Pera O Bayong, among others. We even had a literal peeing contest!⁷ Aside from joining the scramble for candy and coins, I never really participated in the games, until I discovered our tomato variation of the Easter Egg hunt, which fits well with my hide-and-seek prowess. The games go on all day and only takes a break in the early evening to give way to the last novena. Afterwards, we would dance until the dawn (well, they actually, I was forced to retire by midnight). I was fascinated by the disco lights and the dance music back in the 90s was fun, even though I hardly knew the steps.

I remember one scandalous incident that happened amidst the merrymaking in the last night of the Santacruzan. I think I was eleven years old then. In the afternoon lull between the games, I stumbled upon the neighborhood young men unrolling cigarettes and replacing the tobacco with something else. It drew my curiosity, and the lads offered in jest that I join them. Even if they claimed it was different than smoking, I declined, sensing they were still up to no good. Days later I got to know of the smoldering gossip that the same group of youths had successfully enticed one comely household help who was new to our place. It turned out the cigarettes were laced with marijuana and they had a trip by the darker part of the neighborhood while the flashing disco lights enhanced their psychedelic experience. One thing led to another and the maid found herself gang-banged while the loudspeakers drowned out their moans. No charges were filed, and the maid simply left our neighborhood. That's the Philippines for you, despite histrionics in media, your life and your purity are still cheap in reality.

As a side religious celebration to the Santacruzan, at every three o' clock in the afternoon, the children would gather in the chaplet to do the offering of flowers to Mama Mary. This is called the Flores de Mayo, and was supposed to coincide with the blossoming of the flowers in May. The limited appeal it had for me back then was when we would line up with our flower offerings, boys and girls would be paired. I thought it was a good chance to be with my childhood crush, but it never happened. Consequently, aside from helping my friends gather flowers, I had never participated in it anymore. I don't know if they continue with this tradition since, aside from the one in family compound, there's not much flora in the neighborhood now. Besides, I don't think my relatives would allow the flowers to be plucked from their precious plants, which I think are for sale.

Things got different when it was our generation's turn to be in the youth committee. Being part of the committee meant soliciting funds or donations in kind (basically going around begging in the neighborhood), facilitating the construction of the chaplet, grouping the families that will sponsor the chaplet decors and the food tokens for a particular night of novena (requires a good grasp on the latest neighborhood squabbling), and organizing the games and dance for the final day. I had been offered the top position, but I declined. My excuse was that I had summer classes, but was just being lazy. Later on, I learned that being the president meant doing all the work because the other officials suddenly made themselves scarce; thus, I more vigorously declined any nominations.

We were never able to replicate the awesome experiences of the previous final days of Santacruzan of our younger times.⁸ It was either we never had the contacts that would offer us the really awesome lights and sounds for free, or we never had adequate funds when collecting from the neighbors. For our excuse, it was the time of the Asian Economic Crisis back then. Fortunately, things had returned to the level of the good old times. However, our generation had outgrown all these, and it would be up to the next generation of children to find the Santacruzan an enjoyable tradition, hopefully minus the scandals.

Footnotes:

¹ For additional challenge, candies and coins were thrown around, and the spectators to scramble to get their share. The player who moves to join the scramble loses the game.
² Players gyrate to make the spoon stringed to their hips propel the calamansi (the local substitute for lemon) and be the first to make it reach the finish line.
³ We even had the variation where a tomato would be squashed. Hilarity ensued when the blindfolded player veered off course and started hitting spectators.
⁴ We call it "Trip to Jerusalem," a curious name.
⁵ Teams lay their stuff and themselves on the ground to determine which team made the longest queue. Some go all the way and strip down to their undies for the win. Of course everyone starts the game wearing layers of clothing and numerous accessories.
⁶ An unripe coconut husk is carved with niches for money and the husk is covered in grease. Men scramble for the slippery loot and the one holding on to it when the time expires wins.
⁷ The older ones would heckle the uncut, yet there was one uncut boy who used his prepuce to spray out his pee farther than normal using the Bernoulli's Principle.
⁸ I mean, Christmas lights instead of at least the discotheque? It was that pathetic!

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