| VOICES FROM THE 69TH STREET | BY Joseph Sylvester Pampliega |

What is Dinagyang for me? Where is God or what does God wanted to say in the festivities?

The idea of having a seeming secular – if not pagan - celebration having some spiritual meaning is unimaginable amid the crowd, the frenzy of selling stuff that promote the “Dinagyang spirit,” the street dancing coupled with very loud music coming from large speakers installed almost in every block of downtown Iloilo and garbage.

Who would think of Dinagyang as a “spiritual expression” of a people, of Ilonggos, partying till dawn, drinking and dancing, in Smallville, in Plazuela or at Paseo de Arcangeles?

I grew up watching Dinagyang on TV. Walking under the scorching heat of the sun is not fun for me. Watching Dinagyang on TV was fun! After hearing Sunday mass and breakfast, my family and I would gather in front of the TV. As kids, we were on the floor while the adults were seated on our wooden sofa. You can hear them giving their own judgments while we make sense of the movements, seeing the beauty of the tribes’ formation, along with the beating of the drums. From time to time our helper would give us something to munch on. And this would extend until lunchtime, until the awarding. And then, everything goes back to ordinary.

The spiritual aspect of Dingayang is convergence. It allows people to gather together.

How was it when I was already 27? Well, other than feeling your heart really thump with the drums, with the scorching heat and the blows of dust as the tribes stump, it was exhilarating. You wanted to dance with them. You can feel the people – also in convergence – feeling and wanting the same thing: to have fun. What was different probably was you can’t see the beauty of the formation you see on TV. “Being there” was a close encounter. “Being there” was convergence, too, with different kinds of people with different kinds of intent, beyond the common intent to celebrate Dinagyang --- on the streets and outside of the relative safety of their homes, in front of the TV.

Honestly, the first time I hit the streets, I felt some sort of liberation. I had fun. Partying was even more fun! The food fest is a treat but the partying has become a major ingredient of Dinagyang for me. The thought of Dinagyang is synonymous to Smallville for me. From the convergence point in downtown Iloilo long time ago; now, it has spread all over the city, into different convergence hubs. The celebration has become more profound if not more commercial; the celebration has become more and more thought of as secular and not spiritual.

But just yet, with all these externalities, there is something spiritual still in Dinagyang regardless of how people nowadays express it. In fact, even when we express it secularly, we are drawn to do it, to express it, by the very same force that led our ancestors to “venerate” in such ways as what we see in the “dagyang” long time ago. It was their form of worship; and it was a communal act. They prayed to the Sto. Niño. They converged to dance. In our terms now, we converge to pray; to celebrate. They would not have converged as a people if they, by nature, do not believe in something beyond what they see, if they did not see something beyond the “image” of the Sto. Niño. The faith system of our ancestors was profoundly transcendent already from the material world. Everything done by the community – the tribe – was for the transcendent, the divine, the sacred. This is our folk spirituality coming into terms with the contemporary context.

At times, of course, we lose sight of what is “spiritual” in how we celebrate, in convergence, Dinagyang. We just have to remind ourselves that, even when we are in MO2 Ice or Flow carpark, or in Plazuela with the Republiq, or at the Capitol Grounds, in the streets in downtown Iloilo, wherever that is, we converge as a people to celebrate the divine. By this, we should see, if not feel, that same force that draws us to converge --- be it as a family, as barkadahan, or just about the general public. This is the force of the Sto. Niño.

Emile Durkheim, a sociologist, explains this in his book “The Elementary Forms of Religious Life”, saying that, “Religious force – such as the force of Sto. Niño - is only the sentiment inspired by the group in its members, but projected outside of the consciousness that experience them, and objectified. To be objectified, they are fixed upon some object with thus becomes sacred; but any object might fulfill this function.”*

| VOICES FROM THE 69TH STREET | By Joseph Sylvester Evidente Pampliega |

I am still alive. I think that’s the first thing that I needed to say to start my first column for 2012.  It strikes a better tone than saying I have risen from the grave of missing deadlines, piled-up or messed-up schedules and losing track of current issues that led me to be indifferent or complacent these past weeks.  I wanted to write but it was impossible. The last weeks of 2011 have been quite a rollercoaster.  I won’t rant yet; I want to kick-off with much positivity as possible.  After all, we can all just hope for the best this year.  Who knows the Mayans might just be right foretelling that on Dec.  21, 2012 the of the end of the world starts-off with an opening salvo of just about any possible natural or man-made disaster.  After that, we don’t know anymore.

It is important to note that today, we have stepped into 2012 still alive.  We can thank God for that; we can thank ourselves for making sure – in body, mind and spirit – that we are still here.  Looking back through the years, it was not easy, but there are more good things to come.  For a person who believes that life is difficult.  One of our common prayers in Hiligaynon, “Hail, Holy Queen,” captures this picture of life: “nagabakhu kag nagapanangis kami sa sining dutang luha-an.”

Think about that.  Just think of the most difficult, most painful experience you’ve had in life so far and make it five times more painful.  In some sense, in context to that prayer, “dutang luha-an” is much, much more than that.  Now, how can we just say, good things can come to us?

I am actually writing this column in front of my second year high school English class.  Looking at them, their eyes seem to “see” the world yet so positive.  Do they consider life difficult, too?  If not, just so a “possibility” that I can be difficult?  Or painful?  That it is full of suffering?  That the life they are going to live is actually a life in “dutang luha-an”?  Their life experiences may have been so secure still, so protected by the presence of one or both their parents, and their family, who are always there.  Their environment, like their friends or classmates in school, has shown them a picture of the world that is fun-filled, that everything is happy, is possible.  They have not experienced “pagbakhu” or “pagtangis.”  How will it be for them when they live life as adults, in the world of the future; in a world far more difficult than ours today?

2011 is in the realm of history now.  Many things have happened.  I will not enumerate events from January to December like the year-ender reports we have read on print or have watched in broadcast media.  Good things and bad things did happen. Human values were evoked, if not provoked, to respond to the call of the times.

Year 2011 has been a blessed year to see these things.  Beyond this “dutang luha-an” we have seen how humanity, its zeitgeist, after the constant experience of “pagbakhu” and “pagtangis,” surface every time it is needed, how the goodness of humanity outshines darkness every time it tries to take possession of our lives.

This year, there will still be “pagbakhu” and “pagtangis” as the world tries to provide the good life for a growing population from and in a finite world.  More stories of human goodness and greatness will be told.  That’s for sure.  We will still survive 2012 because of this fundamental truth, next to the truth that life is difficult.  Humanity is born to do great things.

Jean Paul Sartre, an existential philosopher said, “Man is condemned to be free. Condemned because he did not create himself, yet is nevertheless at liberty, and from the moment he is thrown into this world (This “dutang luha-an”) he is responsible for everything he does (to do great things, good things, and most of all, to see that the future continues on --- alive).”  This is the hope we should have in our minds and hearts of the goodness of humanity at all times --- even when things are difficult. Happy New Year!*