Buling-Buling Festival 2020 Revisited

Buling-Buling Festival 2020 is festive but overcast weather did not dampen the mood of the people, pilgrims and visitors at the annual festival.

Vice Mayor Maria Sheilah Honrado Lacuna-Pangan MD, FPDS along Labores corner Central street

This is not our first time at attend the festivities. Went to Buling-Buling festival almost every year and covered the event for some online travel and lifestyle sites.

former 6th district councilor Mr. Luciano Mariaño “Lou” Veloso ( in white Barong Tagalog) together with residents of Pandacan in their colorful orange floral kimona.

postal heritage tour participants

We left Manila Central Post Office past 11:30 am together with a small number of participants. We just tried to walk past Arroceros Forest Park , Adamson University and San Marcelino church.

Adamson University

Our small group walked until the far end of San Marcelino street and took a taxi cab on our way to Pandacan. Most of the major through fare leading to the district were already closed by 12:00 noon and our taxi cab driver had to drop us off near Caritas, Manila ground along Jesus street.

Santa Ana Hospital staff and medical workers

Among the special guests of honor includes Mayor Francisco “Isko ” Moreno Domagoso , Vice Mayor Maria Sheilah Honrado Lacuna-Pangan MD, FPDS, former councilor Lou Veloso, councilors of the 6th district of Manila and Barangay officials.

Vice Mayor Maria Sheilah Honrado Lacuna-Pangan MD, FPDS (left portion) serves as Hermana Mayor for the Aglipay church procession.

Aglipay church or Philippine Independent Church procession

Hermana Mayor holds the Santo Niño de Pandacan statue (processional image) for the salubong parade

residents and pilgrims in traditonal terno and barong tagalog attire

Santo Niño de Pandacan

Buling-Buling Festival 2020

The festival schedule was well publicized and shared via several social media sites such as FB, Instagram, twitter and websites.

participants wore the finest modern Filipiniana dress

emcees

Santo Niño de Pandacan Parish marker

Majorettes

Higantes

colorful buntings decorate the main facade of the Pandacan Catholic church

Street Dancing and Parade

Street dancing commenced past 1:00 pm with Santo Niño images procession, grand parade and salubong started quite early.

participants in colorful costumes

Santo Niño de Aglipay and Santo Niño de Pandacan ( Catholic statue)

I have to visit 3 events Santo Niño de Bago Bantay festival , Postal Heritage Walking tour and this was the last event for the day.

Places of Interest

Pandacan had a lot of interesting places, old ancestral houses, folklore and carinderias. We were not able to fully tour all the narrow streets since the weather is overcast and just focused on the main parade.

Ladislao Bonus ancestral house with marker and bust

Mr. Ladislao Bonus was a composer, conductor, contrabass player, and teacher. His pioneering work on musical drama earned him the title as the “Father of the Filipino” opera. He was buried in Manila North Cemetery

Daniel Romuladez Ancestral House

Daniel Romualdez Ancestral House is located along Jesus corner San Luis street which is near the Catholic church. Daniel Romuladez was the Cabeza de Barangay in Pandacan. He was the paternal grandfather of former Leyte Congressman Daniel Romualdez.

Former first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, a distant cousin of the younger Romualdez, was last seen by the residents of the Pandacan during the 2016 festival.

Plaza Zamora

PNR-Pandacan ( Beata ) Station

We have to leave around past 3:00 pm and rode PNR train going north bound. My companion take off at PNR Laon-Laan station in Sampaloc while i took off at PNR Blumentritt station.

Santo Niño replica

Some of my friends arrived past 3:00 pm at the site and continued joining the street dance and afternoon mass.

It was a good decision to leave the festival and parade early , Arrived past 7:00 pm due to heavy traffic.

Advertisement

Participation at the Buling-Buling Street Dance of Pandacan

Buling-Buling is a religious and cultural event celebrated annually in Pandacan , Manila usually held  on the third Saturday of January, in time with the town’s fiesta, to honor its patron saint, Santo Niño.

We decided to visit and explore the historic district by commuting the Philippine National Railway train via España station south bound to Pandacan station. We just paid Php 10.00 fare and took off at the Pandacan station.

Pandacan PNR station

We manage to take few stolen shot at the station before the guard told us that photography was not allowed within the premises for unknown reason . ( Maybe terrorist threat ?)  We just walked a few meters before reaching the church . We manage to arrive past noon time and took some time eating at the local eateries and taking photos of monuments , historical places .

Origin 

This festival comes from the Filipino word “buling-buli” which locally means well-polished , to polish ,  to dress-up , signifying something or somebody to dress in barong with large handkerchief for men , or colorful terno , baro’t saya, balintawak or kimona for ladies.

History :

According to the book  “The Child of the Pandan Reeds: The Spiritual Journey of the Santo Niño de Pandacan Parish,” a passage from a narrative by historian Ricardo Mendoza:

“The children were startled and [they] stopped playing, then admiringly gazed at the small and beautiful image. In a moment, they all felt terrified, and some knelt and prayed because it crossed their mind that this may be the image of the Holy Child.”

Santo Niño de Pandacan replica image with pandan leaves 

Etymology

The Santo Niño was discovered on top of a pandanus plant by the residents of the place , hence the name Pandacan originated , Another theory was people and houses from the locality are ” pandak” short  hence ” Pandakan ” word might have originated.

The festival started sometime around early part of the 17th century along with the establishment of the parish . The dance used to be performed only by ladies as an act of devotion to the child jesus .

Aglipayan church few blocks away

Buling-Buling dance and festivities somehow slowly diminished in the 1930’s and eventually ceased by the end of the second world war , due to many factors such as devastation of Pandacan and moving out of the old families which sponsored the annual festivities.

The annual festival would only focused on parade and simple novena mass for several decades .

Aglipay church main altar 

We saw some of the Kapitbahayan sa Kalye Bautsita atbp. volunteers and residents of Pandacan . Mr. Robert Fabro Tomas and Jhone Gorme , they are part of the organizing committee for this year’s festival. We were allowed to get some photos of the main altar of the Aglipay church .

devotees wait outside the church

This year’s theme ” Dekada ng Pagkakaisa ” marked 10 years of the simultaneous parade of child jesus images of the Catholic and Aglipayan church. The wooden image of the child jesus was carved from black wood , like the ones in Antipolo or black nazarene.  The one that the Aglipayan church was made of ivory .

We did some side trip to some historical places in Pandacan and food establishments ( on later post ) .

 original santo nino de Pandacan  at the side altar 

People started their assembly within the church courtyard , saw some local television channels like GMA channel 7 senior reporter Mr. JP Soriano and some photo bloggers. The parade started about past 2:00 pm with a short practice by the participants few minutes at the church courtyard.

santo nino outfits for sale 

It was only during the late 1970’s  when the Samahang Sining at Kalinangan ng Pandacan (SSKP), founded by Ricardo B. Mendoza and some old-time residents of the district initiated the revival of the colorful dance festival.

procession by the Aglipayan members

two images meet 

“ Salubong ” to meet at the side of the main street between the two images . Both images are original .

Aglipayan child jesus and Catholic child jesus 

Highlights of the Festival

One of the most anticipated part of the festival is when both child jesus ( wooden image by the Catholics ) and ivory image by the Alipayan meet and paraded on the street of Pandacan . This was a rare occasion , since both religion were at odds with each other since the 1900’s .

People from both religion witness the meeting of the two icons of the Sto. Niño like two brothers reunited after being estranged for centuries by war , court order and religion.

Santo Niños of Aglipay and Catholic 

Several child jesus are then paraded along the streets of Pandacan and the Buling-buling dance is performed by the crowd.  Some were privately owned . Some of the simple ones are paraded with the help of pedicabs and tricycles prop-up with cloths, flowers , while the more elaborate carriages bear family heirloom Santo Niño .

Santo Niños paraded on the streets of Pandacan

We also participated at the actual dance , it is 3/4 with hand gestures swaying back and forth while walking the street of Pandacan.

staffs of the councilor 

There was also FREE sopas courtesy of councilor Carlos ” Caloy ” Castañeda of the sixth district of Manila. We manage to take a few cups of hot sopas before we went home , riding at the PNR Pandacan station going north.

This time we waited for at least 1 hour before catching -up the train. We would like to come back again next year and try to dance the Buling-buling .

Note : photos are  from the author