Baguio is also known as the “Flower Garden City of the North” of the Philippines. As such it is also where the famous and world renowned flower festival is celebrated in the month of February. This is also known as Panagbenga Festival; panagbenga is a local word meaning ‘a season of blossoming, a time for flowering’. It is also a tribute to Baguio after the city’s recovery from the devastating earthquake in 1990. The month-long festivities include flower, flower exhibits, lectures, garden tours, floral contest and a parade of floats.

What is Panagbenga?
The Panagbenga festival started in 1995. It represents the many facets of the “Summer Capital”, its people and its heritage. It showcases the people’s talent, artistry and ingenuity through the various performances, exhibits and more. The festival starts with a grand opening – a shower of rose petals along Session Road with marching bands playing lively tunes and setting the festive mood for the parade. Local residents, students and participants from nearby towns and villages come in colorful costumes and perform lively dance numbers. Multicolored floats made entirely from flowers of every kind follows in the parade of floats.

Panagbenga Hymn
Prof. Macario Fronda, band master of the St. Louis University composed the festival hymn. The rhythm and movements of the Bendian dance, an Ibaloi dance of celebration was adapted. The circular movements of the dance speak of unity and harmony among the members of the tribe.In the same way that the communities of Baguio gather together for the festival.

If you are a bonafide Marian devotee and a Bicolano, the annual highlight of your devotion will surely be  the Peñafrancia Festival in Naga City in September.

Every year, the whole of Bicol will go to Naga to partake of the Peñafrancia holiday, the biggest Marian banquet of the state. It’s also considered one of the first holidays mixing faith, culture and custom in a 9-day range of festivities which include civic and army parades, sports holidays, carnivals and exhibitions, regattas, cultural events, beauty festivals, and other dynamic competition. The holiday is the Bicolanos devotion to the Our Lady of Peñafrancia, whom Bicolanos fondly call “Ina” (mother).

The holiday climaxes as the image is escorted along the Bicol River, where a raft ( pagoda ) of the Holy Image is placed. Beside he pagoda are canoes and other rafts of bamboo and decorated motor boats. Before the night finally envelopes the area,  candles are lit as jewel-like flickers in the darkness. Throughout the procession, advocates echo the cries of “Viva la Virgen” and “Viva El Divino Rostro” for the Holy Photographs.

The weight of the image is moved through the help of  male devotees or “voyadores” and they walk on shoeless and with colored banners on their heads or arms. On the side of the streets and river,  steadfast say the novenas and pray the rosary.

As people walk in a gulf of faces under the scorching heat of the afternoon or the downpour of the rain, which is very likely in the month of September, everyone seems to be forget their discomfort as they’re crushed by other pilgrims. All these excitement and pious veneration is given to the Mother of God, and Her Son Jesus.