A Barrio fiesta will happen here in my neck of the woods but we will not be cooking anymore of those traditional tasty foods
When I was young it is exciting to know that our barrio will hold its annual Barrio fiesta celebration all because there will be much foods around although I never went to my neighbor's house around here just to eat as they might not prepared food or I could be not welcome, besides my mother will also prepare foods where at the end of the day I do not know where most of it went. My mother used to fry chunks of Pork meat and a few stews like the Asado, Menudo, fried chicken and I can't remember the others because it was a long, long time ago for the reason that not only the economy is getting bad but also my father who works abroad at that time would often resign from his position and then trying to look for a job in the newspaper to end-up only with a lower salary because his position as a diesel engine and heavy equipment mechanic can only earn much and then cut everytime he goes back to work abroad. His salary was also affected by the hiring of other nationalities by Saudi because they have a lower asking price for their salaries. So with the effect of many laborers for a specific job ratio my father would be taking home around $350 per months with the deduction of his help for my grandmother and relatives in the father side of my family. That is why my family didn't experience being brought to restaurant to eat nor go to a vacation spot near or within our town because we can only get much money from my father because unbeknownst to us, part of his salary goes to my grandmother who lives in the norther part of the main island. That is why preparing for Barrio events like the "Fiesta" was just ignored for the reasons that I have mentioned and so I can only remember those preparations done by my mother, years before I can already cook when I was still a young boy.
Barangay fiestas are indeed fun to have because as I have mentioned there are a lot of food prepared by almost every household. Not only that, they also prepare the best dishes that they can make or afford because most are anticipating some guests to come if not their relatives who lives in other places just to eat, mingle, and have fun with family and friends. The way fiestas are celebrated varies to household to household, barrio to Barrio, Town to town, province to province, and also if it is a rural area of the province, or a city. In most rural areas they would have roast pig if they are raising pigs. But generally most will cook dishes and then buy some to add to the choices of foods so that they will not feel embarrassed when an unexpected set of guests would arrive. So preparing foods based on the family's financial ability is partly about that issue while some people would try to be outlandish and lavish although the money that they used was only a borrowed money which of course is not good although we do not know what they are thinking about to make that rather "weird" decision. But anyway for my household we no longer prepare foods just for this kind of celebration because for one thing my parents does not have extra cash to splurge on it while for my own reason is about the act is just an abominable sin to God because it involves giving offerings to statues even if they are associated with saints mentioned in the bible and it is an equivalent of worshipping other Gods plus thanking them for a good harvest, etc, especially parading a "cross" which is my barrio's Patron "Saint" and calling it "Santa Cruz" while the cross itself really doesn't belong to the Lord Jesus Christ but from the Romans who use it to nail criminals and the enemy of the Roman empire.
During fiesta celebration the barangay council (Barrio Council) will officiate the preparations like putting decorations above the road, colorful flags we also call "Banderitas" (small flags) stringed together to make up with what you see in the first photo which I took while we are on the road. There was this instance that they used colored water in plastic bags as another variant to the banderitas, those colored water bags were so enticing to look at because a child could try to drink it contents as if it was a fruit juice. It was only done once here in my Barrio and I think they just discontinued it because it is thrown out after use compared to banderitas which can be reused for as along as it is still relatively clean and colorful. The type of banderitas used within a Barrio can mean how enthusiastic its barrio official are for celebrating their own fiestas particularly when they negotiate how man number of Parades that the walking brass band would do in the course of celebration. A lower number of rounds will just mean that there is no much a budget coming from the officials which actually would come from the mayor plus the sponsors if there are. It could mean that there is a budget for getting more brass band trips but the official just decided to pocket most of the funds for that too. The marching brass bands are also one of the highlight of the Fiesta because not only they do their peculiar music but young males in the neighborhood are delighted to look at beautiful majorettes leading the march of the brass band. Merry-making is what people does when it comes to fiesta because it involves drinking, eating, meeting relatives again, and seeing your friends that would stop-by to celebrate this always fun event. Sometimes rain would come and shower barrio and thus affecting the fun part of the Fiesta. But regardless almost all households will take part of it because literally it is a very festive occasion next to Christmas and New year celebrations of this neck of the woods where I live.
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