#funborongan

This year's fiesta was the most memorable for me. Essu Nite is one of the activities done for the fiesta. This event showcases studens and faculties diverse talents and creativity, so being one of the performes of Essu Nite was such a bliss. We performed short and sweet stage play and a musical play. In our musical play, my character was a grandmother and on the stage play I was Sandra, a college student who loses sanity because of drugs. To see smiling faces, and to hear loud cheer and claps while performing was really my cloud 9 moment.

After the Essu Nite, my friends and I spend the night at Baybay Boulevard. We then decided to play at peryahan and experience for the first time riding a ferris wheel. It was quite a roller coaster feeling, from an exhausting yet fun stage play to riding a ferris wheel while fighting my fear of heights.

That's it for now! Hope you enjoy reading my blog! Share your first time experiences as well, I'll be happy to read those. Have a great day ahead besties! xoxo

The Borongan Fiesta, is an annual celebration held in Borongan City, Eastern Samar, Philippines. The fiesta has strong cultural and religious significance for the city's residents, it is being celebrated in honor of The Nativity of our Lady, patron saint of Borongan City.

The history of the Borongan Fiesta dates back to the Spanish Colonial period when Borongan was still a small coastal settlement.Its development into a town, and eventually into a city, is traced back to the early 1600 out of the scattered hamlets located on the banks of the adjacent Guiborongani (Borongan or Sabang) River and Lo-om River. Guiborongani was the larger settlement and was later on called Borongan because of the heavy fog that usually covered the place. The name Borongan was taken from the local word “borong”, which in the Waray-Waray language means “fog”. The people inhabiting the eastern coast of Samar were originally called “Ibabao” during the pre-Spanish period. According to Meranau, Borongan is a common name of green Banana,located in the surrounding of Lake Lanao. The development of Borongan was greatly influenced by the religious missions of the Jesuits during the period 1604–1768, and the Franciscans from 1768 to 1868. Borongan was established as a pueblo on September 8, 1619. On this date, the Commandancia and the Very Reverend Father Superior of the Jesuits from Palapag, a town of Northern Samar, went to Ibabao to install the first priest of Borongan, Fr. Manuel Martinez, who served up to 1627.

During the Borongan Fiesta, various activities are conducted by the Borongan City Government and the local community. These activities aim to showcase the city's rich cultural heritage and bring people together in joyful celebration. The commonly held activities during the fiesta includes: religious processions, street dancing, palarong bayan, beauty pageants, food and trade fairs, and cultural shows and performances but the very highlight of the fiesta celebration is the Padul'ong Festival.

The Padul-ong Festival is the province’s way to pay homage to its Patroness, the Blessed Virgin Mary. The festival commemorates the day they received the image. It depicts a mythical presentation on how the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary was inexplicably transported to Borongan City all the way from Portugal. The festival also illustrates the legend of a mysterious “Lady in White” who allegedly visits the Hamorawan Spring regularly. According to the locals, the Lady in White has been blessing the spring waters with miraculous healing powers. Every September 7 or 8, Borongan City celebrates an early morning mass in a quaint chapel at Barangay Punta Maria. The mass signifies that the Padul-ong Festival has officially started. From the chapel, the small image of the Blessed Virgin Mary is transferred to Rawis Port. The first part of the festival is the fluvial procession where boat owners can join along with the official boat carrier of the small image across Rawis Bay. The image is then paraded through the town going to Borongan Cathedral. At the Borongan City plaza, there is a re-enactment of how the Blessed Virgin Mary was brought here in Borongan City.

These are just few of the activities being held every Borongan City Fiesta, to be mesmerized by these activities celebrate with us, come and have fun in Borongan!

(crdts: Go Borongan page)

Last September 8, 2023, Borongan City Eastern Samar celebrated the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary also known as the Padul-ong festival.

The Padul-Ong Festival in Borongan pays respect to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the story of how she came to be the city's patroness. According to legend, a mystery woman traveled by ship from the port of Portugal in 1718 and was left alone in her stateroom by the crew the entire time. The waters grew choppy in all directions as the boat approached Philippine territory. Their sailing only became calm when they turned westward of the archipelago, in the direction of the island of Samar.

The captain discovered that their strange passenger had vanished when they arrived in Guintaguican, which is now Punta Maria. The only thing she had left was her cargo, a lovely representation of Our Lady of the Nativity that included a veiled Saint Anne sitting and holding Mary in her arms in contrast to the Madonna and Child.

Padul-Ong is derived from "dul-o," which is Binisaya for "hatid." The Padul-Ong is a tradition that is expanding and accessible to more people, far from being a static relic from the past.

Every year on September 7, the city recreates this illogical journey. The Padul-Ong starts at two in the morning at the tiny chapel in Punta Maria, which is an hour outside of the city. Only the surrounding households can be heard praying in a repetitive manner; the roosters are still dozing. The Blessed Virgin of the Nativity statue is calmly seated outside on a bed of flowers atop a moving platform under strings of banderitas.

A mass is followed by a novena. Then, chanting in unison with lit candles, incense burning from the thurible, and the solemn boom of rockets that send up plumes of smoke in the day, the Blessed Virgin and her caravan slowly make their way to the local port.

The word "borong," meaning "fog" in the native tongue, is where the word "borongan" comes from. At morning, strands of fog were still hanging over the calm water from the nearby mangroves, seemingly reaching out to grab hold of the Mary statue as it boarded the waiting banca. She would be transported to the main ship, where she would captain the flotilla as it approached the city.

Source:

Parlade, S. (n.d.). A tale of faith and Fable. GRID Magazine - Travel the Philippines. https://www.gridmagazine.ph/story/a-tale-of-faith-and-fable#:~:text=Today%2C%20Borongan’s%20Padul%2DOng%20Festival,trip%2C%20forgotten%20by%20the%20crew.