For 82-year old Sylvia T. Vendiola, celebrating Christmas in her native town of Bacong in Negros Oriental would not be complete without the age-old tradition of the Padalagan sa Bitoon which she and scores more of Catholics look forward to every year during the holiday season.
Vendiola, an active member of the Parish Pastoral Council of the St. Augustine of Hippo Parish in Bacong, says that the Padalagan sa Bitoon (race of the stars) has been a tradition in their town since she was still a child. She remembers how the Catholic Church in her hometown shifts into festive mood with this particular event.
It begins on the first day of the nine-day Aguinaldo (dawn) novena masses prior to the Christmas Eve eucharistic celebration, and runs through the Feast of the Three Kings, which is celebrated usually on Jan. 6th or 12 days after Christmas.
The Padalagan sa Bitoon, an informal name given to the activity, involves the hanging of two huge parol (Christmas lanterns) from two long ropes with pulleys, which would allow them to travel from the choir loft above the main entrance of the church down the aisle all the way to the altar and then back.
Apart from the parol, another object in the form of a cloud, which the locals call nubi, hangs from the ceiling at the altar and keeps on flapping up and down during the mass but springs a “surprise” during the Christmas Eve mass.
Also part of the entire production is the Belen (Nativity scene) at the right corner of the altar, where the Child Jesus is lying in a manger with the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, the three Magi, and some farm animals in this popular Christmas scene.
The parol and the nubi are put up and remain in their places by the first Aguinaldo mass on Dec. 16 and thereafter, with the dawn masses held every 4 a.m. until Dec. 24.
During the Christmas Eve mass, as Gloria in Excelsis Deo is sung, the bells are rung, and the Church lights up to welcome the “birth of Jesus”, the parols are released from the choir loft, pulled quickly towards the altar, like they were racing against each other.
At the same time, the nubi opens up, lets out an “angel” which is then being pulled straight towards the Nativity scene.
According to Exuferio Tinguha, who has served in the Church as an organist for 29 years, the parols symbolize a comet and the star that had guided the three kings who were searching for the Child Jesus in Bethlehem.
Tinguha, who teaches liturgical music at the local seminary, said he believes this entire production during Christmas dates back to more than a hundred years.
He said he remembers his grandmother, who would have been more than 100 years today if she were alive, telling him stories about the Padalagan sa Bitoon. It’s a tradition that is closely associated to Bacong, he points out.
And that’s because apart from the parol, the nubi, and the Nativity scene, the Bacong Church choir boasts of being able to sing liturgical music at Christmas in Latin, Tinguha says, beaming with pride.
In addition to that, Bacong Church, listed as a national cultural treasure, is home to a centuries-old pipe organ, one of the few remaining Spanish pipe organs in the country.
Acquired in the mid-1800s, the pipe organ was restored and completed in October 2009, and is now the Church’s main attraction.
Tinguha says that on Christmas eve, he gets to play the pipe organ; while the choir members, eager to sing in the mass — including some elderly like Vendiola — manage to climb the steep stairs that takes them to the loft where the musical instrument is situated.
The Bacong way of celebrating Christmas is truly a unique experience for those who did not grow up there, a tradition that must be preserved and continued for the next generations, according to Simplicia Baro, a member of the municipal council.
The 74-year old councilor, also an active Church volunteer and president of the Sacred Heart Organization in Bacong, describes the Christmas spirit of their town as “truly an example of bayanihan”.
Volunteer-members craft the parol and the nubi, put them up inside the church, put up the Nativity scene, and donate the clusters of bananas hanging from banana stalks — a Visayan tradition commonly referred to as the Banana Belen, she says.
Residents of Bacong also offer to provide for the snacks for the volunteers, she goes on.
The Banana Belen is also an old tradition where people prop up on doorways some banana stalks with the banana fruits intact. Councilor Baro says when carolers sing in the neighborhood, homeowners in return give some of the bananas away, instead of coins or candies as practiced in modern day.
Msgr. Julius Perpetuo Heruela, Bacong parish priest, explains that such traditions are “catechetical practices that reflect the faith and spirituality” of the Catholic faithful.
“Symbols speak a lot [about our faith],” he explains, citing an example of the nubi opening up and letting out an angel, and likening it to the “opening up of the heavens with the angels coming down and singing Glory to God in the Highest in celebration of Christ’s birth.
The Belen or the Nativity scene is also catechetical and biblical as expressly described in the Bible, just as the stars are also aptly- depicted as what is written about the Three Kings who were guided by the star of Bethlehem, Monsignor Heruela says.
These are practices that are catechetical with priests of the olden days, using such symbols to make it easier for the people to know and understand the life of Christ, he adds.
And because the celebration of Christmas culminates during the Feast of the Three Kings, it is also aptly portrayed that on that day when the Magi “go home”, the stars also “depart” from the Bacong Church production.
On the Feast of the Three Kings, the stars are once more made to “travel” from the altar back down the aisle and up to the choir loft.
The culmination of the Christmas celebration in Bacong on that day picks up, and becomes more cheerful, with people in high spirits and full of joy, as some of them, including children and adults, running after the stars, believing that they receive abundance of blessings by doing so.
In some instances, candies and coins are distributed to the children.
While the Padagan sa Bitoon may seem to be a repetition of the previous years’ production, every Christmas is always a different experience, leaving the people with a joyful appreciation of the blessings that they receive all year round, as they look forward to it the following year, Monsignor Heruela says. (Judy Flores Partlow/PNA)