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Peñafrancia, the 300-year-old Fluvial Procession Festival in the Philippines
- NameRoyce Lyssah Malabonga
- Date04 Oct 2018
- CategoryICH News
![A scene of Peñafrancia ⓒ Gregory Ian Nicerio Opeña](/upload/board/A112/thumb/A-scene-of-Peñafrancia-ⓒ-Gregory-Ian-Nicerio-Opeña3.jpg)
The Peñafrancia Festival involves two festivities. The celebration for the Divino Rostro or the Divine Face, usually held in the second week of September, is to pay homage to the image of Jesus Christ. People’s devotion to the Divino Rostro may have begun in 1882 during a sudden spread of cholera from Manila that reached Naga City. During that period, there was no cure for the epidemic, but according to the locals, when the image of the Divino Rostro was placed at the altar of the town’s cathedral, the epidemic astonishingly vanished. The weekend following the celebration of the Divino Rostro are the festivities for Our Lady of Peñafrancia. Due to the popularity of the Peñafrancia Festival, Naga has been dubbed the “pilgrim city” in the Philippines.
![](https://www2.unesco-ichcap.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/A-scene-of-Peñafrancia-ⓒ-Gregory-Ian-Nicerio-Opeña2-300x201.jpg)
During the fluvial procession, images of Our Lady of Peñafrancia and Divino Rostro are boarded in a gazebo on a boat with Catholic clergies. The barge with the religious images is then followed by long canoes paddled by young men in colorful shirts. They paddle as fast as they can as though in a boat race. Only men are allowed to paddle the canoes, according to the beliefs of locals from the Bicol region, as women could trigger disaster. However, only chosen devotees (voyadores) can ride the canoes while the remaining devotees watch the procession on the shores of the river as they cheer “viva la Virgen.” A religious mass is held once the religious images arrive at the Basilica of Our Lady of Peñafrancia.
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