FLORES DE MAYO – The merry month of May is associated with flowers in full bloom. And mangoes at their sweetest and juiciest. Also Santakrusan and Flores de Mayo processions, where the town’s prettiest girls are chosen, escorted by handsome guys. Or little boys as “escorts” of the Reyna Elena.
Flores de Mayo is in honor of the Blessed Mother, while Santakrusan commemorates the search for Christ’s Cross by Empress Helena, mother of the great Christian King Constantine.
Jay P. Delgado sends this Flores de Mayo piece to be staged in Lucena City, close and dear to this columnist’s heart being from Quezon (Unisan and Lucena).
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‘PASAYAHAN SA LUCENA’ – JPD’s report.
A GRAND Flores de Mayo will be one of the highlights of the “Pasayahan sa Lucena Festival,” an annual merry-making event that was conceptualized in 1987 by then Lucena OIC and human rights lawyer Euclides Aguinaldo Miravalles, to correct the city’s image as a sanctuary of the New People’s Army and to promote it as a great tourism and investment haven. It has been held every year since in honor of the city’s patron St. Ferdinand.
This year’s event will run from May 21-26, 2016 and will also include Bb. Pasayahan 2016 and Gandang Lola Pageants, Tiangge sa Bayan, street dancing competition, the Grand Parade of colorful floats and the Mayor’s Night hosted by Lucena Mayor Roderick “Dondon” A. Alcala and his wife.
The Flores de Mayo grand procession this year, with Lucena fashion designer Armhand Remojo as overall chair, will be held on May 24 and will feature the exquisite creations of 28 designers of the Quezon Designers Association of the Philippines (QDAP). The lovely maiden-zagalas will be topbilled by 2014 Bb. Pilipinas-Supranational Yvette Marie Santiago who will wear Remojo’s creation.
The procession will commence at Pacific Mall, and will go through the city’s main streets, winding up at the covered court of Maryhill College where the awarding and coronation ceremonies for Rosa Mistica, Reina de las Flores, and La Flor de Lucena will cap the event.
This year’s hermano and hermana mayors are Dr. Edwin J. Pureza and Carlina Delgado Reyes.