Catholics celebrate Feast of St. John the Baptist

by jayr_patron | June 23, 2008 at 05:01 pm

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Every town in the world named St. John or "San Juan" today celebrates the feast of St. John the Baptist. In the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic nation, the annual celebration is met with playful dousing and sprinkling of water to... any one.

In the City of San Juan, one of the cities (and municipality) comprising Metro Manila, residents are given the excuse to douse strangers--and the latter, taken away from their right to be agitated by the action.

No one is spared from this celebration...even police authorities assigned at maintaining peace and order.

All towns and suburbs named San Juan (St. John the Baptist) celebrate this festival, which involveds playfull "baptism" with ilang-ilang scented water and is meant as a coy flirtation between the sexes. It can degenerate into a free-for-all water fight with much drenching and laughter. Places to see and be drenched include San Juan in Metro Manila; Baylan in Batangas, which stages a lechon parade; Punta in Taytay, near Bacolod City, in Negros Occidental and Camiguin, North Mindanao.

Writer's note: It would have been great if the water they used were harvested from the heavy downpour during the weekend.

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