Many of the great towns in the Philippines were founded beside rivers. From the earliest times, people chose to settle either close by the sea or beside a river. Many times, the reason for settling beside a body of water was that it was the place most easily reached by boat, the most common way of travel in ancient times.
People who traveled from island to island naturally landed on hospitable beaches, on which they made their homes. The more adventurous people who explored the inner jungles and mountains almost always traveled up a river. If they found a place that seemed safe or pleasant, they settled down, but almost never far away from the river.
Not only was the river the highway of the ancient people as it is today; it was the source of food and fresh water to drink — as it also is today. By simply dangling a baited string into the water or by mooring a trap, the ancient Filipinos caught fish for their meals, and by feeling around rocks, they caught shrimp or frog to eat. The river cleansed them when they were tired or hot. And it gave them cool water to drink.
Sometimes the river was treacherous and rampaged in a flood from the burden of rains. During those times, the people feared the river. Sometimes someone lost his life in the river.
The people held the river in appreciation and in occasional fear in the past as in the present. The ancient Filipinos believed that the river had spirits which blessed them when they were pleased and which punished them when they were neglected. Many rituals and ceremonies took place in the rivers to honor these spirits.
Through the centuries, Filipinos learned the truths and ways of Christianity. As Christians, they know, worship and love the Supreme Being God, and his Son, Jesus Christ, God-made-man. They ask the help of saints — human beings who by their good works and excellent lives are honored after death and whose joy is to plead with God for the well-being of their fellowmen on earth.
Many of the ancient rituals and festivals were joined into the rituals and festivals of Christianity. Instead of many gods, one God alone is worshiped. Instead of spirits, saints are invoked. Instead of supernatural beings who descended to share the life and to help the people of the earth, the person of Christ, God and man, is recalled, His virtues imitated, His teachings followed.
Among the ancient rituals that have made a transition into Christian practice is the river festival, held wherever people have founded their homes beside a bounteous waterway and so realize their good fortune as well as their peril for being close by a river.
During the festival, big and small boats are decorated with flags, buntings and flowers. Some big boats carry musicians, who play cheerily as the procession sails down the river. The biggest boat carries the image of the saint who is honored. Sometimes St. Peter is honored at a river procession; he was a fisherman. Very often, Mary the Mother of God is honored, for she is the patroness of many Philippine towns.
Bocaue in Bulacan is a town beside a river where the Holy Cross of Christ is honored at a water-borne procession. The festival takes place on the first Sunday of July. It is the town fiesta of Bocaue, a fitting time for the people, who are mostly fishermen, to express their gratitude and to pray for blessings.
The people of Bocaue call the Holy Cross Santa Cruz sa Wawa. (Wawa means “a place where there is water.”) Legend says that one day a long time ago, a fisherman saw a large wooden cross floating on the Bocaue River. He wanted to take the cross ashore, but although it was floating, he could not lift it. He asked the other fishermen to help him. But even all together, they could not carry the cross.
The parish priest was called. When he saw the cross, he knelt and prayed. Then he approached the cross and lifted it easily on his shoulder. The fishermen and the townspeople of Bocaue were astounded. They decided right then to build a shrine for the cross.
This is the same cross that is carried today in the river procession. Early in the morning, the ancient cross is taken from the shrine and carried in procession to the river where it was found. Singing and dancing, a group of women accompany the cross. They dance for favors requested and favors received.
On the river a beautifully decorated barge awaits the cross. With great reverence it is set on an altar. Then the barge begins a slow journey down the river. On all sides and from behind, the barge is accompanied by many gaily decorated boats. They carry fishermen and their families and many other devotees of the cross. Along the riverbank, other people watch and pray as the procession passes by.
The procession returns in the afternoon. Once again the cross is met by devotees, dancing from the river bank, up the streets and back to the shrine.
The town of Bocaue is famous for its bands of musicians. On the day of the fiesta, the bands march with their cheery music from dawn to evening. But at no time is their music at its most joyous than when played from the boats sailing at the procession of the Holy Cross.
