As
an inter-diocesan seminary of the Philippines, the UST Central Seminary is
compose of seminarians coming from different regions all over the country and
even from the neighboring countries. During the month of August, a regional
festival is annually held. The Regional Festival is one of the most awaited and
most attended events in the UST Central Seminary. This serves as an avenue to
showcase the different cultures of the different regions here in the
Philippines plus the culture of the foreign seminarians. They are the Ilocano,
Tagalog, Bicolano, Hiligaynon, Cebuano-Waray and Mindanaoan culture plus the
culture of the foreign centralites. A regional mass sponsored by each region is
firstly held. In this year, a regional basketball competition is also
introduced. The event is highlighted on a Saturday night as each region takes
pride in presenting their respective culture through the food, booth and dance
competition.
Rigid preparations take place before
the said event. Nobody is taking this event for granted since the pride of
one’s culture is at high stake. Right at the beginning of the month of August,
plans are already laid down. Even financial accounts would matter to make this
event successful as seminarians would contribute a sum amount of money or seek
help from generous acquaintances like the alumni priests of the seminary. When
the competition draws near, the time for study period would even be sacrificed
for practices. Everyone would really contribute to give their best to showcase
their respective cultures.
I am from the Ilocano region and I
am really proud to belong to the Ilocano tribe. It has been 4 years already
that I witness and experience the regional festival. For these years, I can say
that I really exerted a great effort to contribute so that the best of the
Ilocano culture may be shown to the community. I am truly grateful and I take
pride that the Ilocano culture has gain recognition from the judges and the
visitors (hoping from the community as well) through this regional festival. For
this year, we won the dance and booth competition. What matters more to me is
that through this regional festival, I can say that our brotherhood,
camaraderie and unity as Ilocanos have improved and strengthened. Thanks to the
leadership of our Datu, Sem. Rindy
Miguel-my kailian, and the
cooperation of my fellow Ilocanos. Clearly, I can say that we, the Ilocano
tribe, have won the battle over the other regions basing from the competitions
of the Regional festival 2013. But generally, we are all winners. I know we all
deserved to be called winners because we all gave our best to showcase our
culture.
Battle? Yes, it is! Every regional
festival is a battle among the different regions. I believe that every region
wants that their culture will be the first place in the different competitions.
Unfortunately, there must only be one champion in a competition. But the battle
does not only exist in the competitions, it even extends in the internal forum;
that is among the members of the region. Surely, during the preparations, there
has been a clash of ideas concerning what are the things to be done, who would
do this and do that and the like. It cannot be avoided that there are members
who would have attitudinal problems like those who are tardy, hard-headed and not cooperative. As a matter of fact after our dance presentation, there was
a tension in our group because of some technical errors during our
presentation. There were some shouting and confrontation. Fortunately, when we
knew that we won the dance competition, the tension finally ceased. Thanks be
to God!
For me, the regional festival does
not entail a simple battle during the competition between the different regions
or even among the members during the preparation but more so a series of
battles. It is in fact a war; a war throughout the formation year. I do not
mean here a battle between the different regions but a battle between me and my
ego, between you and your attitude, between us and our false sense of
regionalism. For four years, I am not really sure if the regional festival
attained its true purpose, which is to share and to appreciate the richness of
one’s culture, or did it just create chaos between the different regions. In
our attempts to showcase our own culture, did we simply give our best shot or
did we even go beyond our limits like degrading other cultures, destroying
their images, talking negative things behind their back, taking advantages over
them and the like? It is time to reflect on the true sense of regionalism. There
may be a thin border line between patronizing/being proud of your own culture and
imposing/boasting your own culture to others but we have to correct this
misconception. We need to battle our own issues like our being superior complex
or inferior complex that greatly lead us to this false sense of regionalism. We,
the Ilocanos, may have won the battle in the competition, but not yet the war. We
need to face our own issues regarding our culture and the culture of others. Every
region is called to fight. This is the battle…a series of battles… a war that
all of us must win.
Every culture has its own uniqueness
and beauty that is ought to be valued, respected and
appreciated. Here in the UST Central Seminary, the different regions with their
respective cultures are like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. They have to be connected
properly, orderly and peacefully to solve the puzzle in order to come up with
our own culture: the Centralite Culture.
This is the battle; a series of battles; a war that we must fight together. We
must win and we must own---not my culture, not your culture, but the Centralite Culture!
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