DANCING DIVAs

Couples young and old danced to the tune of "Santa Clara Pinong-pino" in the age old Obando Fertility Rites Festival held in Bulacan. Every year in mid-May, thousands of childless couples flock to the church in Barangay Pag-Asa, the town center, to implore its celebrated patron saints Santa Clara, San Pascual and Nuestra Señora de Salambao for intercession. (Ching Tan)


Presenting! My first published photo. This was posted today at Asian Journal Online edition. Thanks to Miko for giving me a break. It was truly a memorable experience for me doing my first professional field work as a photographer.

The stint gave me an opportunity to witness what and how it's like to participate in a cultural event such as this. You can really feel the gusto in every devotee to dance and walk for the patron saints namely Saint Claire, Saint Pascual and Nuestra Senora de Salambao. Their spiritual devotion to the mentioned Saints is very admirable considering most of the devotees came from different parts of the country or even the world just to pay homage primarily to Saint Claire and to ask for a child. The Obando Fertility Rites Festival manifests how religious Filipinos are and how persistent they can be just so their petition will be granted.Faith can really move mountains but in this case, devotees walked and danced to the tune of "Santa Clarang pinong pino" to ask for different petitions but mostly for childless couple to have a child of their own.

This is just my first time and I know I still have loads of tricks to master and guts to muster for me to hurdle physical and emotional obstacles in this profession. I'm not really eyeing to be immersed in this kind of profession but I want to do it once in a while. I love the feeling of wearing different hats, it makes you feel proud that you're not just stuck to do one thing and it enables you to maximize your God-given talents while doing your time here on earth.

THERE REALLY IS LIFE after SCB! ... a better one =p

AMEN!