(This is supposedly titled Honest Scrap Award. I changed it as a cue to the main content of this entry.) Thanks, again to Kreez of Intricate Thoughts for this award. She wrote,
Read MoreThis award is bestowed upon a fellow blogger whose blog’s content or design is, in the giver’s opinion is brilliant.
THE GIANT TRADITION
As I wrote here, we left Bale Dutung at 5:30 PM and headed back to San Fernando to watch the Giant Lantern Festival. Gladly, the tour organizers were able to get us VIP seats. Hence, it was a relief to be seated visually comfortable enough to appreciate more the lantern fest. I must say that these are literally giants that did beat the fancy lanterns I’m oriented to.
(Different faces of the entry from Barangay San Jose)
The (giant lantern) entries from each of the nine competing barangays were displayed by threes. The competition came into two phases, (a) that each lantern was showcased individually in its interpretation (lights synchronization) of own chosen music or set of songs (b) that three lanterns were showcased simultaneously using the same song. Being part of the audience, the second phase is visually more interesting (and challenging) since you will be comparing three interpretations at the same moment. While that would entail further strategy for the lantern makers since their very own have to stand out among the entries simultaneously played and adjudged.
Read MoreBefore going to Bale Dutung in Angeles City, we bus-seated toured around the old houses in Bacolor and Guagua. We also went out to check the two of the oldest churches in Pampanga.
BACOLOR CHURCH, The Half-Buried Church
(An old photo of the church pre-eruption displayed in the mini-museum). Bacolor Church reminded me of Cagsawa Ruins in Daraga, Albay. As written near the church entrance sideways to the bell tower that survived:
San Guillermo Parish Church is named after the town’s patron saint. The church was originally constructed by the Augustinian friars in 1576 – also the town’s founding – with Fr. Diego De Ochoa, OSA, as the town’s first parish priest having been installed as such two years after. In 1880, the church was destroyed by an earthquake only to be rebuilt by Fr. Eugenio Alvarez in 1886. Lahar flowed from the slopes of Mt. Pinatubo which erupted into world notice on June 15, 1991, buried the church at half its 12-meter height prompting of its more than 50,000 town residents to evacuate to safer grounds in resettlement areas.
(L-R: Me fronting the half-buried church, one of our guides Ivan Man Dy doing the introductions, an image of Nuestra Senora del Rosario, retablos)
A month before taking my vacation last year, I’ve booked two local tours. One of which is the Ultimate Kapampangan Tour. I really looked forward to this tour organized by fellow blogger Anton Diaz, with Ivan Man Dy, Ivan Henares and Spanky Enriquez.
The tour is being arranged ideally for 30 persons. We met up before 7:00 AM in Makati and the bus left on time heading to Pampanga. Since this is a culinary tour and that we were warned that we will be eating a lot throughout the day as intended, I did not take breakfast at home. True enough, just as the bus was still parked near 6750, Spanky handed crispy ensaimada to each of us. It is uniquely delicious that I tried to source it before returning here, but I didn’t find one. Also, Ivan handed a bayong (I like it so much that I brought it here, I’m attaching different scarves to it) to us. In the evening, it was more than filled out of Kapampangan goodies.
Read MoreI did miss blogging and bloghopping. Now that I’m ready to do posts again, I realized that I’m not yet done sorting the photos that I took during my vacation. Beginning with at least 500 photos (and a number of videos, too) per day that I had while in HK and Macau, then those taken at home. Also, I don’t know where to resume, to blog about the activities I had FIFO (first in, first out) or LIFO (last in, first out) method.
For today, I’ll initially share this one taken in one of the highlights of the Ultimate Kapampangan Tour that I joined last December 20.
Here’s Claude Tayag starting the first of the five ways lechon that he prepared for the group. It was literally a pigging out tour. In my next post, I’ll share about the fantastic 5-hour lunch that we had in Bale Dutung (Kapampangan term which means “House of Wood”), Claude Tayag’s house.
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