Mother Mary's Birthday

September 8 is for some people just an ordinary day while for many Filipino people, this is a special day. Other religions just don't mind about this day but for the Roman Catholic Religion, predominant in the Philippines, this day is a significant day. And why? This is because it's the birthday of our Blessed Virgin Mary. While the Roman Catholic Church usually celebrates the day which a saint died, Mother Mary is so special that we also celebrate her birth.

To commemorate this day, Roman Catholics held a special mass in their diocese or chapels for this special occasions. Maasinhons, as religious people, attended masses or just lighted a candle in their altars just to praise Mother Mary. But the most frequent activity of Maasinhons on Mother Mary's birthday is to go to Our lady of the Assumption Shrine located at Abgao, Maasin City and Diocesan Shrine in Montecueva, Basak, Rizal, Maasin City. Masses were held there and a large crowd of people attended. If you go there, you will be amazed how many people meet there. People especially from highlands go down here to visit the Shrine and join this commemorating event. Poor or rich, young or old, good or bad, all kid of persons are seen at the Shrine. Students after their classes won't miss going to the Shrine. This is what Maasinhons would never miss for. It is their way of showing love and belief to Mother Mary since we owe her a lot. The flow of people going up and down the Shrine never stopped the whole day.

This is how religious Maasinhons are. Whatever happens they won't let this day pass without giving a visit to Mother Mary. This is how we love our Blessed Mother Mary. Keep it up Maasinhon! God Bless to all!

Loyalty Day Celebration of my Alma Mater

As you may know, I attended Saint Joseph College (SJC) and graduated in practical nursing in 2010. Despite its name, SJC is not only college but also high school, serving the full range of education in Maasin. Every first week of September, Saint Joseph College celebrates its Loyalty Day. It is part of every school to have Intramurals or so called Loyalty Day. It is when students show their talents and skills in literary and sports. It helps also to develop God given gifts of students, and also sportsmanship since in every competition, there's always a winner and a loser. Beauty is also shown through having muses in every year level of each team. It is one of the school events that students had most awaited.

Three weeks before this event, the college students start having sleepless nights. Not enough to be in school every day, every student went back to school during night, after dinner, to practice the activity they have joined since all students are required to participate and join even just one activity of the event. Some are into sports while others are into other activities like street yelling, parlor games, games of law and literary.

September 2-4 of this year, SJC had its Loyalty Day with the theme: "Loving each other as children of God". The event started with a Holy Mass at 2pm and a parade was followed afterward. Years ago, students were divided into two teams for high school and elementary department and four teams for college in every department. But this year it was different: the college was divided into four teams by merging course departments. Each year, factions were named with terms from the Catholic Religion. This year, teams were named after saints since SJC is a catholic school. The teams of the elementary department were St. Dominic Savio and St. Tarcisius; the high school teams St. Sebastian and St. Aloysius; and  lastly, for the college department, the teams were St. Pillagius (Criminolgy, Practical Nursing, Diploma in Information Technology, and Office Administration Department), St. Achilleus (Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Department), St. Agapitus (Civil Engineering, Bachelor of Science in Accounting Technology and Bachelor of Science in Accountancy), St. Joan of Arch (Bachelor of Science in Education, Computer Science and Bachelor of Science in Information Technology).

Knowing that its Loyalty Day, people were waiting at the side of the street to witness the parade and watch students wearing their colorful team tshirts together with their muses. People were entertained by the street yellings. Really fun to watch for!

After the parade, students were gathered at Maasin City Gym to open the event in a form of a short program. There was a firework outside the gym before the program was finally started. Lighting of the torch by Bishop Precioso D. Cantillas, SDB, DD, SJC school president, was followed. A short speech by him was delivered afterward to officially and formally open the event. Dance presentation from college, high school, and elementary school were shown. Muses with their different muse attires were presented as well. They ramp around the ground showing their beauties. After this, winners for the street yelling, parade and muses were proclaimed.

The second day, September 3, was dominated by sports events. Students woke up early for the attendance quick count and for the mass afterward. Ballgames and athletic games followed afterwards. Under the heat of the sun, students were striving and trying their best just to win for their teams.

On the third but last day, September 4, games of law were held and after it has been done, all students and teachers gathered at SJC covered court for the proclamation of winners. Excitement and happiness were seen in every students face while waiting for the proclamation. Okay, here is the proclamation: For the college, the champion is the St. Pillagius team, for the high school, the St. Aloysius team was best, and lastly for the elementary department, the winner is St. Tarcisius. Yahooo!

Whatever the result, sportsmanship wins and seen among student's faces and this is the most important to accept the result heartedly. Students were satisfied with what they have heard during the proclamation. Friendships are still there since for them that was just a Game. Congratulations to all the winners and for the losers, better luck next time. God Bless!

Looking for a digital camera ...

Today I am not able to add a picture to my blog. I would like to, because a blog with pictures is so much nicer, but I cannot. Why? Because I have no digital camera! The pictures in my past blog entries were taken by friends, not by myself. Is anybody reading this who has a spare digital camera for me? Hehehe ...

I don't have the financials for it, but I can dream, so I was investigating about digital cameras selling here in Maasin City. What store we can buy it? How much does it costs? The lesser and the average price. What are the brands?

I walked around Maasin City looking for a digicam. I went to stores which sells appliances and gadgets. Sad to say, there's only one store that sells it, the Cellworks. If you know other stores, please add a comment here. Cellworks sell digicams but the most gadgets they sell are cellphones. They only have four kinds of digicam in different brand. These are a Canon worth P22,000, a Sony Cybershot (14.1 megapixel) for P14,000, a Sony Cybershot (12.1 megapixel) worth P9,999, and a Nikon for P16,000. All these are small compact cameras for beginners and everyday use, not big professional cameras. The price is probably fair if you are rich enough to afford it, but for my own financials, I found it very expensive. Sad to say, maybe I will never have a digicam...

These are only what I got in my investigation. I hope soon, Maasin City got stores which sells many gadgets so it would be more easy for the maasinhon to buy such thing here and so we have many more choices. Goodluck Maasin. God Bless!!!

Surprise For a Friend

Preparing a surprise birthday gift for the one who is special to my heart is one of the most exciting things I ever did in my life. I have done it to my family many times but not yet to a friend. And this is what makes it an exciting one for me.

Last August 19, it was Yhing's birthday. The days before this date, we didn't talk about it when we were together, pretending that we forgot her birthday. Whenever we realized that she is going to talk about her birthday, me and Donna tried our best to change the topic. Even when we were exchanging text messages by phone, we didn't mention it, and instead we talked about the usual things what we will do on the coming days. We told her that it would be a busy day for us, we have lots of work to do in our house, and so on. When that day came, Yhing sent a message containing: "Wa jud nang.greet dahhh..:(" to be exact, if only she knew our plans for her, for her special day. Hehehe. I did phone calls to our friends Donna and Rozel and to Yhing's boyfriend Jingle to talk about what to do with the surprise birthday gift. We agreed to contribute money in any amount so we can buy the gift. We never sent text messages to her, also not replying to hers. We did not let her know that we were in the city already. To figure out where she is, we just texted Jingle so that our ways wouldn't crossed while we were buying the surprise gift. That time, Yhing get a little bit mad at poor Jingle because he was always texting so that she (with irritation) always asked him who he was texting to, not knowing that it was us. Getting mad, she decided to go home. Ooooohhh no, that shouldn't be! We haven't finished buying the gift. So, we told Jingle to do anything to please her for her not to go home. And thank to God, Jingle did a good job and she stayed away from home. After we bought the gifts which are cake, balloons, and pansit bihon, we went immediately to her house. When we came there, her family was also surprised as they didn't know our plan. We hide at her room and texted her boyfriend to bring her back into her house. Her older sister commanded her to get her niece out of her room. then, she followed. As she opened her room's door...Surprise! ... "Happy birthday, happy birthday to you!" she could hear us singing. Seeing her face, she was really surprised with tears of joy in her eyes. Yahoooo! ... Our plan was successful!

Even if it was just simple, we know that we make our friend happy on her special day. We did special things to her. We really love her. No one can take this precious moments we had on her birthday.  Friend can't be bought by money that's why we treasured our friendship and this is how we showed our love for her. God bless to all of us!

Maasin Fiesta Celebration

Every August 15, it's Maasinhon's tradition to celebrate the Feast of the Our Lady of the Assumption, the patron of Maasin City. Days before this event, there were activities held like the Parish-BEC Night in which all Catholic Maasinhons were invited to come and join the party. There was a big show for the people and for the bishop and the priests, with some lead singers and background dancers that made the people really entertained. After that, a Disco was followed. It is the time when people, priests and bishop mingled to each other. On the next day, there was Maasinhon Got talent, a contest in which Maasinhons in different ages showed their talents in singing and dancing.

Maasinhon who are working abroad or living in other cities or towns came home just to witness the fiesta celebration. Our fiesta was for some of us a family reunion as Maasinhons together with their families attended mass. We could also see people from other towns visiting our place. Many foreigners came for the fiesta. Even for the poor and disabled people, it was a special time. It is natural for us to see beggars, lames, and blinds in different corners of the city to beg money, and Maasinhons generously share with them when we have. As we enter to Maasinhon's houses, different foods were seen on the table. Of course, us as Filipinos love preparing different kind of foods during special occasion like this fiesta. After a nice meal and a short rest, people roamed around to shop things. Maasin was very crowded at this time.

People have different reasons why they came for the fiesta. Some were just looking for adventures while others came to adore and pray to the Patron, Our Lady of the Assumption. Some came just for shopping since during this time, goods were cheap or affordable. But, whatever the reasons are, the important thing is that people were happy as they went back home.