Fiesta

Last Sunday, January 9, 2011, the feast of the black nazarene was celebrated. Based in Quiapo church it was estimated that at least 4 to 7 million Filipinos trekked to the said church to celebrate the feast. After the grand procession of 17 hours, around 700 individuals were injured - fortunately, no one died for celebrating the feast.

Historically, the spanish colonial masters instigated the celebration of such feast to distract the natives from organizing themselves into a resistance movement. Along with cockfighting, which was also encouraged by the colonial masters, they were able to subjugate the indios.

Today, the practice of celebrating fiestas is still with us. Somewhere in the Philippines, a fiesta is being celebrated. It there are 365 days a year, there are twice as many fiestas. Today, one of the most popular gambling is cockfighting. The main contention of this essay is that we are still no better than the colonial indios of the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th indios. We still subscribe to the folly and practice of colonial mentality where we are physically and psychologically treated as slaves.

And what does the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines does? They encourage the irrationality. They encourage fanaticism. They encourage stupidity.

Considering the practice of fiesta in the Philippines, somewhere in this island, someone borrowed heavily to finance the feeding of people that he wouldnt normally associate with. Just for this day of irrationality, strangers are fed with matching "pabalot" or take home.

It is also observed that during this day, all people of different mental disorders show themselves in public claiming that they are the messiah as promised by the bible. From one schizophrenic to another, of different shape and size, they all claim and promise salvation for anyone jaded enough to listen to their rant.

Comparatively, in the the Middle East, they also have their own pilgrimage (Hajj), they also have their own list of injuries and deaths. And similarly, these phenomenons results in one tangible result - fanaticism. Now more than ever, educated individuals should be above these schemes. The problem however is that with all the noise and distractions, rationality is outshouted, thinking is substituted by emotions and the ugly face of mass hysteria occasionally shows itself during these feast days.