Sinadya sa Halaran 2009!

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Immaculate Concepcion. If you were born in Roxas City, Capiz, Philippines, then you knew that this is an important date. It’s Roxas City and Capiz’s answer to Cebu’s Sinulog, Iloilo’s Dinagyang and Aklan’s Ati-Atihan… it’s Sinadya sa Halaran Festival!

 It was a long time, a very long time that I have last experienced this event. I wanted to, but sometimes it’s hard if you are far from your birthplace. Sometimes, it’s the money that really kept  me away. If I have time to go home, it’s either a month before the event or months after the event.

I still remember the excitement as we were all going to the exhibits inside the Villareal Stadium. Excited to see my projects being shown to all the people who were visiting my school’s tent. Yup, I graduated in Capiz Institute of Technology (now known as Capiz State University) and the yearly exhibit was what our “shop” was always preparing.

The festival was celebrated separately then. It was called only “Halaran” Festival (which means “offering after harvest”) every first week of October and the Sinadya Festival (which means celebration) every December as part of the Feast of the Virgin Mary. The Halaran Festival was celebrated by the whole province while “Sinadya” was for the city. Because of huge budget in celebrating two festivals in  a year, the Province and the City Governements merged the festivals, hence it became” Sinadya sa Halaran”… the city and the provincial governments share the expenses in giving the people and the world a first class celebration. “Sinadya sa Halaran” is the only the major festivals in Western Visayas that is not dedicated to the Sto. Nino, but for the Virgin Mary, while in Bacolod City they have MassKara Festival that is dedicated to the people of the province which they celebrate every October (few weeks after Halaran festival in the 80’s to the 90’s).

The only factor of Sinadya sa Halaran Festival is that they are not as mainstream as what Iloilo, Aklan, Cebu and Bacolod has. Although their were  lots of sponsors behind the festive Sinadya sa Halaran, it is not widely known in the entire country not event the world. Correct me if I am wrong, but I asked a lot of people if they were familiar with “Sinadya sa Halaran”, and they mostly gave negative feedbacks. They always associate the province of where a huge number of “aswangs” came from.

Although most of them maybe joking, but it hurts! When the ”Aswang festival” was celebrated twice by the City of Roxas, the popularity of the “Aswang Festival” was more mainstream than “Sinadya sa Halaran”. Too bad it was cancelled on its third year, because I was scheduled to go home and experience what the festival was all about, but I was too late.

The “Aswang” festival has potential though, on bringing in more tourists into the city. Even where I worked before in Manila, my co-workers showed interests in planning their next year to take part in the “Aswang” Festival.

Nevermind what the religious sector will say about the celebration, its just part of what the Halloween tradition is. It does not mean that we lost our faith.

Sometimes, we had to celebrate what our city is popular to. We may hold again two festivals in a year because after all, “Aswang” Festival was privately-operated, and it still create and help our city becomes a first class city. Dont let our city to be nailed as second class city.

I hope we had a very nice Sinadya sa Halaran this year and I am hoping that I would be able to go home and enjoy once again what Sinadya sa Halaran feels and also Diwal festival which follows the Sinadya sa Halaran. Diwal festival or The Roxas City Seafood Festival is held to commemorate and promote the resurgence of the Angel Wing Clam or “diwal”, which neared extinction until protected and cultivated in Roxas City, and this is the celebration of why the city is worthy of the name,

“The Seafood Capital of the Philippines”!