BOCAUE RIVER FESTIVAL of Bocaue, Bulacan
February 23, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bulacan Festivals
BOCAUE RIVER FESTIVAL
The Festival
Held every first Sunday of July in the river of Bocaue, in the province of Bulacan, the Bocaue River Festival is observed in honor of the Holy Cross of Wawa. Its main feature, the pagoda, a decorated huge float atop a barge, gliding along Bocaue River, carries a number of people on a ride feasting on sumptuous food whilst music is being played. Replica of the Holy Cross which was said to be been floating in the Bocaue River long time ago is aboarded on a towering pagoda of elaborated trimmings on a fluvial river parade, escorted by smaller, colorful bancas.
Devotees come in multitude in this nine-day novena, attending the slow moving of the fluvial parade and douse each other with water, while some people who were unable to ride the pagoda due to the thick crowd swim along at the side or at the back, and others climb up to the deck eventually diving to the river.
Bocaue River Festival is known for its numerous titles such as Pista ng Mapagpalang Krus ng Wawa, Pagoda River Festival, Pagoda sa Wawa, and Bocaue Pagoda Festival.
The Bocaue River Festival is no different to other Filipino festivals, another opportunity to experience typical Filipino hospitality, where residents invite passersby, some even total strangers, to pay a visit to their homes, dine with the household with the cuisines especially made for the occassion.
Origin
It is once told that the Mapagpalang Krus ng Wawa (the Holy Cross of Wawa) has saved the life of a drowning old woman. The Holy Cross was discovered sometime about 200 years ago on the Bocaue River, being fished out by the ancestors of the local people of Bocaue. People of Bocaue claim this is the origin of the feast of the Holy Cross, thus commemorating it every year in an exhuberant river procession.
The Scoop
The Town of Bocaue
Located in the mid-southwestern part of Bulacan, Bocaue lies 27 kilometers northeast of Manila, and is a first class municipality in the province of Bulacan. In the year of 2007, Bocaue population reached to 105, 817 in the census.
Bocaue is an old Tagalog term for bokawe, a type of tree. It was established by the Spanish Friars and stood alone as a municipality in 1606 from the nearby town of Marilao.
Loading ...
