Bayang Magiliw

The 16^th of January has always been significant in my childhood. It meant the Town Fiesta. It meant food and family and friends and tons of fun.

Today, I celebrated my 4^th one that’s entirely different from the fiestas I’ve known. Close, but not quite. But I’m thankful that even if I’m miles away, I am able to enjoy the day as – by habit and tradition – I should.

I am thankful for the chance to sing the Philippine National Anthem (“Lupang Hinirang”) again with my right hand on my chest. Funny how each rare opportunity to sing it causes tears to well up now. When this is easily taken for granted back home…in schools, government offices or over the radio. Because it is played everyday, perhaps? Maybe because we don’t cherish what we have until the privilege is taken away. I’ll wait for the next Manny Paquiao match and once again sing it with a passion. Sometimes though, I still sing it inside my head. Sometimes in my heart. I just don’t want to forget the lyrics.

It’s amazing isn’t it? Each of us always tries to bring a little piece of home anywhere we go in this world. A movie DVD, some songs in our mother tongue, a hot aromatic pot of some dish we grew up having. Most of the time, we try to put these million little pieces together in order to recreate our lives as one people away from our motherland…oh the million parties and the celebrations! We try as much as we can to preserve the culture and our faith.  And so our roots will remain known and never forgotten, especially by the succeeding generations who no longer had the chance to experience what it was actually like.

But I am sure, these little pieces of home in our hearts are really solely meant for our own selves, so we can go on with our lives away from the home that we know, and in the way that we know best.

  

PS.

http://teacher-c.blog.friendster.com/2007/01/happy-fiesta/ (an article I wrote for the 2007 souvenir program)