Barrio Fiesta was a much- awaited yearly event, for its locale would give it an indigenous flavor and local color. The barrio folks would wait this occasion with heightened expectancy due to its religious significance. The early Spanish missionaries must have given the barrio a patron saint to guide its destiny and progress, which must therefore be honored annually without fail. As the people had embraced the Spanish religion a failure to honor the patron saint would be sacrilegious and is dishonor, and some harm could come their way. The devotion for celebration and fervor.
Most of the barrio folks would allocate part of their harvest for the celebration of this festivity honoring their patron saint. Those with business would do the same. Expensive if not extravagant this traditional age-old practiced may be, nobody would contradict nor question it, it had become a customary law and a part of culture itself.
Nine days before the barrio fiesta, religious devotees would pray the nine days devotion and rosaries in the local chapel where their patron saint is placed. Families would serve food to the elderly and devotees. As the fiesta would near more people would join the nightly prayers to include the children.
There would be a fiesta committee appointed by the barrio leader to take care of the activities for that year. The music bands, décor of the chapel, arches to be erected, food for the guests, and many more would need funding. This job would fall to the financial committee. Success of the barrio fiesta would depend on the amount collected.
On the eve of the fiesta, the music band would be marching along the dusty barrio thoroughfares followed by the children in cheerful mood and bucolic joy. Men and women in colorful attires would be dancing in the streets with the band playing the appropriate music. Children would be walking or riding in festooned carts pulled by carabaos with colored paper decorations pasted on the horns.
Around the chapel would be mini-fairs or “feria” which would appear a day or two before the fiesta. There would be eateries like, “halo-halo”, tiendas, and makeshift bazaars selling from candies to plowshares, from face powder to household items. It would be more of a “you name-it-we-have-it” market. Neighboring barrio merchants would come in carts and trailers to offer their wares. Smart business people
Athletic competitions could also be held like softball, volleyball, and basketball. Carabao racing could be held much to the appreciation of the audiences. Other competitions like “palo sebo”, juego de anillo”, and “puto seko” eating contest could also be held. In “palo sebo”, a person would have to climb an erected greased smooth bamboo pole at the end of which would be a prize, usually a bag of coins. “Juego de anillo” would be for those with bicycles who would be required to hit a hanging ring on a string across the roadway by means of a small stick held by a hand while riding the bike. “Puto seko” game would be for competitors to eat small circular bone-dry biscuit made of rice flour and then made to whistle after consuming 3 to 5 pieces. The one who could whistle would win the prize. Many children could consume the biscuits but their mouths were too dry to emit a whistling sound.
The morning of the fiesta would be ushered by a mass in the barrio chapel by the several invited priests. There would be a big attendance composed of the barrio residents and their guests.
The two day affair would be dramatic presentation in the evening fiesta. Attendance would be full from those outlying barrios and sitios. By past midnight, the play would end. In the record time, the whole place would be empty. One by one, the store merchants would be packing up too, and then, the unsold wares and items were packed and ready in the carts awaiting movement at the end of the show. The fair would close too, and soon the area near the chapel would be dark and empty, only the flickering low-level light floating in oil in a glass container would be seen inside the empty chapel. Even the devout in prayerful nightly vigil would have gone home. Nothing could be heard but the chirping cricket and the passing wind- tell-tale signs that the splendor, if not lavishness and luxury that was the barrio fiesta, was over.