THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY.....
NAYON Members Join The Procession.....
An Image of St. Joseph With The Baby Jesus.....
Different Images Of Mother Mary.....
As a Roman Catholic, I never fully understood the value of Mother Mary in my life before. My concept of her was she was just a statue being passed around. During my years as a child, a statue of Mother Mary was being passed from one house to another. The exact tradition was this statue was supposed to stay in a house for a week, the family members are encouraged to pray the rosary during its stay and when the end of the week has come, the image was then sent to another house. Who's statue was it? I don't know. Before it came to my neighborhood, where did it come from? I don't know.
I studied in a Catholic school, Nazareth School when I reached my high school years. The school was under the Daughters of Hijas de Jesus, the female equivalent of the Society of Jesus which is better known as the Jesuit Priests. It was in this school that I soon became aware of Mary's importance in our life. Lectures about her life were repeatedly expounded to us in class and the more I got to know her background, the more I appreciated her contributions to the faith. It made me aware of the significance of these dates: September 8 and December 8, the former as Mary's birthday and the latter as the day she conceived Jesus (Immaculate Conception). These days are designated days of obligation by the church, a time when Catholics are obligated to go to Mass which is celebrated in her honor.
Every first Sunday of December a group whose name I can't recall, organizes a Marian procession with the route covering the streets of Intramuros. This procession is significant for it gives the Filipinos who have panatas to Virgin Mary, the chance to come and offer their prayers to her. A total of 50 to 70 statues of Mary from different parts of the country come to Manila to participate in the event. Even well known images like the Our Lady of Manaoag from Pangasinan and the Nuestra Senora de Penafrancia from Naga in Bicol can be seen in this procession. I do admit that I don't even know the names of most of the statues. Most of them are considered antiques, being hundreds of years old.
My first time to join the on the spot photography contest was the inaugural staging of this event. Cash prize was 50,000 pesos for the winning entry. Ahh, those were the days when sponsors were generous and an event like this landed on the society pages of broadsheets. And because film photography was still the norm and photoshop still didn't exist, photographers really had to use their imagination and creativity to come up with photographs which we thought were our winning entry. And with all the photo clubs that were under the FPPF, it was our photo club, NAYON which got the most number of top ten entries. This record, has not been challenged by any other photo club since then. Thus, even if there are no more generous sponsors, even if cash prizes are no longer being given away, even if the event seems to have lost its luster in these days of commercialism and fast paced lifestyle, we at NAYON still continue to shoot the event. As Buboy puts it, "Ito ang panata natin. Tatapusin natin ang taon sa pamamagitan ng pagkuha ng litrato ng mga imaheng ito at sisimulan ang darating na taon sa pagpapakita ng mga litratong ito."
Well said Buboy! Here is a glimpse of the different Virgin Mary that joined the procession last Sunday.