Local Filipinos celebrated Macau’s 21st San Isidro Pahiyas Festival yesterday in Praça do Lago Sai Van, with the event again being held outdoors for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began to hit Macau in 2020.
According to the Philippines’ Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) website, the festival is “a thanksgiving festival to San Isidro Labrador for the past year’s bountiful harvest”. The website also adds that the “image of the patron saint is also paraded around assuring the farmers of a bountiful harvest in the years to come”.
President of the Quezonian Association of Macau and event organiser Wabbet Cabungcal briefed The Macau Post Daily on the festival’s importance in creating unity among Macau’s different local Filipino associations and groups.
“Every year, what we do is bring [Filipino] associations together so that they aren’t so dispersed”, Cabungcal said, noting that the number of local Philippine associations have increased since the festival’s inception in Macau in 2003, with some having already registered with the government.
Moreover, he noted that the festival also aims to help strengthen how people see the Filipino community, and create a positive image as well. “What I always tell the associations is that we should always be united for the success of each person”, Cabungcal, who also acts as an advisor to different associations, underlined.
Cabungcal noted that he was happy to see the festival having been brought back to how it was, highlighting the efforts of the different associations while working together, thereby setting a good example for Filipinos in the city.
Meanwhile, Pahiyas Head Organiser Inna Angeles also echoed the importance of unity through the festival, pointing out that the event is where one could find unity among the community, which celebrated the festival despite yesterday’s hot weather.
She added that the different communities also worked together to coordinate the event and performed separate assignments to ensure that it ran smoothly. “Although they all come from different groups, they all unite and do different jobs to make everything run much smoother”, she said during the festival.
Angeles added that it was important to continue the celebration to see different aspects of the Filipino culture in Macau, while also ensuring that the Filipinos who were born in and are living in the city know and won’t forget about their own culture.
Meanwhile, yesterday’s event also included for the first time members of other nationalities, such as the local Indonesian and Vietnamese communities, Angeles pointed out.
Pahiyas Festival organiser and Quezonian Association of Macau President Wabbet Cabungcal poses for a photo during yesterday’s event. – Photos: Rui Pastorin
Different Filipino groups stage traditional performances during yesterday’s event.
